Singer Miley Cyrus is facing a lawsuit for allegedly copying one of Bruno Mars’s famous songs.
Tempo Music Investments, which owns a share of the copyright to Mars’ hit song “When I Was Your Man,” has filed a lawsuit against Cyrus over the “striking similarity” to her hit song “Flowers,” according to court documents obtained by Fox Business.
“Any fan of Bruno Mars’ ‘When I Was Your Man’ knows that Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ didn’t achieve all of this success on its own,” the lawsuit states.
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“‘Flowers’ replicates many melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements from ‘When I Was Your Man,’ including the melodic chord design and verse sequence, the continuous bass line, some chorus bars, some theatrical music elements, lyrical elements, and specific chord progressions,” they alleged in court documents.
“There’s no denying it, based on the combination and number of similarities between the two records, that ‘Flowers’ wouldn’t exist without ‘When I Was Your Man.'”
“There’s no denying it, based on the combination and number of similarities between the two records, that ‘Flowers’ wouldn’t exist without ‘When I Was Your Man.'”
The “Count On Me” singer was not named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed Monday, Sept. 16, in federal court in Los Angeles.
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Co-writers Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack are listed in the lawsuit for unauthorized “exploitation” of the song. Several other defendants, including Sony Music Publishing and Apple, are also named in the court documents.
March’s hit song “When I Was Your Man” was written by 38-year-old singer Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt.
Tempo Music Investments claimed in the documents that it acquired the copyright to Mars’ song “in or about 2020.”
“The opening vocal line of the chorus of ‘Flowers’ begins and ends on the same chords as the opening vocal line of the verse of ‘When I Was Your Man,'” the lawsuit says.
The music investment platform demanded that Cyrus, 31, and the defendants listed in the lawsuit stop reproducing, distributing or publicly performing “Flowers.”
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Tempo Music Investments is also seeking damages, but the amount remains unspecified.
Cyrus’ representatives did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, while Mars’ representatives did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The lawsuit between the two music stars comes after Cyrus won her first set of Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 66th annual awards ceremony in February 2024.
Cyrus performed the song live during the ceremony, and “Flowers” also won Best International Song at the Brit Awards earlier this year.
“Flowers” became an overnight sensation, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and breaking the record for the fastest song to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify.
Meanwhile, after more than 16 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in April 2013, Mars’ hit song “When I Was Your Man” climbed to No. 1.
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Mars also received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance for the song in December 2013, and in 2014, the song won the award for “Most Performed Song” at the Pop Music Awards hosted by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
In May 2021, “When I Was Your Man” was certified 11th platinum.
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