Miley Cyrus and Flowers co-writers sued for copying parts of Bruno Mars song When I Was Your Man. In a new lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles federal court, Tempo Music Investments claims that Flowers «exploits» without authorization several elements of the Mars song included in the 2012 album Unorthodox Jukebox. The lawsuit also names Sony Music Publishing, Apple, Target, Walmart and other companies that have distributed Flowers.
Tempo Music has stated that it owns a portion of the U.S. copyright of When I Was Your Man after acquiring them from Philip Lawrence, who co-wrote the song with Mars, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt. Mars is therefore not named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
«Any fan of When I Was Your Man of Bruno Mars knows that Flowers Miley Cyrus didn't achieve all that success on her own. Flowers duplicates many melodic, harmonic and lyrical elements of When I Was Your Manincluding the outline and sequence of notes in the verse, the connecting bass line, certain bars of the chorus, certain musical elements, lyrical elements, and specific chord progressions,” reads the lawsuit consulted by Rolling Stone US.
«It is undeniable, based on the combination and the number of similarities between the two recordings, that Flowers would not exist without When I Was Your Man“, continues the complaint, which also names Cyrus' co-authors, Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack. “With FlowersCyrus, Hein and Pollack have created a derivative work from When I Was Your Man without authorization.”
Representatives for Cyrus did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Rolling Stone. The amount of any damages will be determined at the trial, if it ever takes place. Tempo Music has also sought a court order prohibiting Cyrus and the other defendants from reproducing, distributing or publicly performing Flowers.
From Rolling Stone US.
