Cyrus has been accused of copying a Bruno Mars hit
Legal representatives for Miley Cyrus have responded to a lawsuit which claims she copied a Bruno Mars tune for her hugely successful song ‘Flowers’.
Earlier this year Cyrus was sued by the company Tempo Music Investments, which owns a portion of the Bruno Mars song ‘When I Was Your Man’, that accuses her of ‘exploitation’ in regards to ‘Flowers’.
In the lawsuit, Tempo Music claim that Cyrus, along with songwriters Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack, ‘created a derivative work’.
They argued: “Any fan of Bruno Mars’ ‘When I Was Your Man’ knows that Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ did not achieve all of that success on its own.
“‘Flowers’ duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements of ‘When I Was Your Man,’ including the melodic pitch design and sequence of the verse, the connecting bass-line, certain bars of the chorus, certain theatrical music elements, lyric elements, and specific chord progressions.
‘Flowers’ has been a very successful song for Miley Cyrus. (VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
“It is undeniable based on the combination and number of similarities between the two recordings that ‘Flowers’ would not exist without ‘When I Was Your Man’.”
Now the legal team representing Cyrus has responded by filing a motion in an LA federal court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that ‘When I Was Your Man’ has four writers and Tempo Music is only acting for one of them.
Tempo Music obtained the rights to the works of songwriter Philip Lawrence, who was one of four writers on the Bruno Mars song, while the other three writers Bruno Mars, Philip Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt are not named as plaintiffs.
Lawyers for Cyrus have argued that in the US only ‘a legal or beneficial owner of an exclusive copyright’ can sue for infringement, and since Tempo Music doesn’t have exclusivity on ‘When I Was Your Man’ her representatives want the case dismissed.
In the filing they say that Cyrus and the other songwriters for ‘Flowers’ responded to the accusation and ‘categorically deny copying’ the Bruno Mars song.
A company has sued Cyrus claiming that she copied the Bruno Mars song ‘When I Was Your Man’, which she ‘categorically’ denies. Mars himself has not sued. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for SelvaRey)
The motion to dismiss the lawsuit argued that the two songs have ‘striking differences in melody, chords, other musical elements, and words’.
They added that ‘the allegedly copied elements are random, scattered, unprotected ideas and musical building blocks’, which wouldn’t be protected by copyright.
Released in January 2023, ‘Flowers’ became the best selling single of 2023 and ended up becoming the most successful song Miley Cyrus has put out thus far in her career.
It won Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the Grammys, as well as Best International Song at the Brit Awards.
‘When I Was Your Man’ was released in 2013 and went 11 times platinum in the US.
LADbible Group have contacted Miley Cyrus’ legal representatives and Tempo Music Investments for comment.
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