Ed Sheeran ‘Shape of You’ trial: Live updates as singer appears in court over copyright claims

Musician was called ‘magpie’ who allegedly ‘borrows’ ideas from others

Ed Sheeran in court over copyright claims on song Shape Of You

Ed Sheeran is in court after being accused of stealing parts of another song for his hit single” Shape of You”.

The singer-songwriter has taken the stand in London over the claims, which were alleged by songwriters Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue.

They argue that “Shape of You” was inspired by their very own song, titled “Oh Why”.

The pair allege that the song has taken “particular lines and phrases” from their own, claiming that Sheeran’s refrain of the words “Oh I” is “strikingly similar” to their delivery of the words “Oh why”.

Find all the updates from the trial below.

Key Points

• Ed Sheeran called ‘magpie’ who ‘borrows’ ideas from other music stars during ‘Shape of You’ court battle
• Ed Sheeran sings ‘No Diggity’ by Blackstreet to make a point during court trial

[9 March 2022 16:43 · Sam Moore]

Ed Sheeran has been accused of copyright infringement before. In 2016, Sheeran was accused by songwriters Martin Harrington and Tom Leonard of plagiarising their song “Amazing”, which was song by Matt Cardle.

They claimed he copied their chorus for his hit “Photograph”. Sheeran settled the case out of court for an undisclosed sum.

[9 March 2022 15:27 · Sam Moore]

Ed Sheeran revealed that he hired a musicologist to listen to “Shape of You” to notice if it was similar to any other songs.

He said the musicologist “found similarities and we changed the similarities”.

[9 March 2022 14:37 · Sam Moore]

Sheeran explained that he, Steve Mac and Jonny McDaid came up with the melody together, saying: “It was all of us three bouncing back and forth in a circle. That was how it originated.”

[9 March 2022 13:47 · Sam Moore]

Sheeran told the court that he thought the original version of “Shape of You” sounded too much like TLC’s “No Scrubs”. He stated that he sought out clearance from the writers of “No Scrubs” but received no answer before the track was released.

The writers of “No Scrubs” were later added to the credits of “Shape of You”.

[9 March 2022 12:55 · Sam Moore]

Lawyers for Chokri and O’Donoghue accused Sheeran and his co-writers Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid of launching legal proceedings in March 2018 to “intimidate” his clients.

Sheeran, Mac and McDaid originally filed a motion to the High Court to declare that they had not infringed upon Chokri and O’Donogue’s copyright.

Sheeran stated that he filed the claim because “I wanted to prove I was right.”

[9 March 2022 12:32 · Sam Moore]

Sheeran became irritated when an unreleased song was played to the court. He then revealed that the song was written last January and demanded to know how it had come to be played in court.

The song was accidentally taken from Steve Mac’s laptop when the wrong folder was accessed.

[9 March 2022 12:10 · Sam Moore]

“Shape of You” remains the most played song in the history of Spotify. While the track was the highest selling song of 2017, royalties for the song have been frozen since Chokri and O’Donoghue claimed copyright infringement in 2018.

Royalties from the song are estimated to be worth around £20m.

[9 March 2022 11:40 · Sam Moore]

The trial revealed that Sheeran, along with his co-writers Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid, originally intended to give “Shape of You” to Little Mix or Rihanna as he thought it clashed with the rest of his third album, Divide.

[9 March 2022 11:21 · Sam Moore]

Sheeran also performed a rendition of Nina Simone’s classic hit “Feeling Good” in an attempt to demonstrate the commonplace use of certain melodies.

The “Castle on the Hill” singer said “If you put them all in the same key, they’ll sound the same,” additionally referring to Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” which he also sang during the trial.

[9 March 2022 10:56 · Jacob Stolworthy]

To steer away any claims that he stole a refrain from “No Diggity”, Sheeran said that an earlier version of “Shape of You” was too similar to the 1996 song.

“I said that was a bit close to the bone [and] we should change it,” the court heard