September 19, 2024 | 8:08am
MANILA, Philippines — Pop singer Miley Cyrus was sued for allegedly copying Filipino-American Bruno Mars’ song “When I Was Your Man” for her Grammy-winning track “Flowers.”
According to a lawsuit filed in a Los Angeles court earlier this week, Tempo Music Investments claimed that many “recognized the striking similarities” between the two songs.
Tempo Music Investments owns a share of the copyright in Mars’ song after it acquired songwriter Philip Lawrence’s music catalog around four years ago.
Mars, Lawrence, and songwriters Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt are not named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit calling for “copyright infringement arising out of the unauthorized reproduction, distribution and exploitation of ‘When I Was Your Man’.”
“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’,” the lawsuit said, adding that Cyrus’ song “duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements” of Mars’.
Among the claims is the opening vocal line of the “Flowers” chorus supposedly starts and ends on the same chords as that of “When I Was Your Man,” not to mention the use of similar words.
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The chorus of “Flowers” goes: “I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand, talk to myself for hours, say things you don’t understand. I can take myself dancing and I can hold my own hand. Yeah, I can love me better than you can.”
Meanwhile, the “When I Was Your Man” chorus goes: “I should’ve bought you flowers and held your hand, should’ve gave you all my hours when I had the chance, take you to every party ’cause all you wanted to do was dance. Now my baby’s dancing, but she’s dancing with another man.”
Cyrus is being asked in the lawsuit to stop reproducing, distributing, or publicly performing “Flowers” as well as pay a yet-to-be-determined amount in damages.
“Flowers” was the lead single off Cyrus’ eighth album “Endless Summer Vacation” and was an instant hit when it dropped on January 13, 2023, coincidentally the birthday of Cyrus’ ex-husband Liam Hemsworth.
Earlier this year, “Flowers” won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance, Cyrus’ first-ever Grammy wins, and was also up for Song of the Year.
“When I Was Your Man” was the second single off Mars’ second album “Unorthodox Jukebox” from 2012 and remains one of the singer’s tender hits, even getting a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance.
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