Miley Cyrus Accused of Copyright Infringement for ‘Flowers’
Miley Cyrus and her team of co-writers are being sued for copyright infringement. According to the American gossip and entertainment website TMZ, the pop star and some collaborators are accused of violating the copyright law with her hit “Flowers”, the most streamed single of 2023 according to IFPI, taken from the singer’s album of last year “Endless summer vacation” (here is our review).
The accusation against Miley Cyrus and her team was reportedly brought by Tempo Music Investments, which filed a lawsuit on September 16 in Los Angeles federal court alleging that the song “Flowers” unauthorizedly features elements of Bruno Mars’ 2013 song “When I Was Your Man.”
Tempo Music Investments, a North American private equity and music investment firm that claims to own a share of the copyright to Bruno Mars’ song, said there were many musical similarities between the two songs, stressing that it was clear that Miley had “intentional plagiarism.”
In the lawsuit obtained by TMZ, which highlights the fact that Bruno Mars is not directly involved in the lawsuit as a plaintiff, Tempo Music Investments argues that the melody, harmony and chorus of “Flowers” are substantially similar to the verse of “When I was your man” and that Miley Cyrus’ single also takes up specific text elements and chord progressions. In the legal documents, in addition to seeking compensation for damages yet to be determined, the company then states: “It is undeniable, based on the combination and number of similarities between the two songs, that ‘Flowers’ would not exist without ‘When I Was Your Man.'”
“Flowers” was written by Miley Cyrus in collaboration with Gregory Aldae Hein and Michael Pollack, while Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson took care of the production. About “When I was your man“, Instead, Tempo Music Investments has announced that it owns a portion of the song’s U.S. royalties after acquiring them from Philip Lawrence, who co-wrote the song with Bruno Mars, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt.
