Ed Sheeran (31) is involved in a legal battle over his world hit ‘Shape Of You’. The British singer appeared on Friday in a black suit at the Supreme Court in London for the start of the trial, which is expected to last three weeks.
Two performers, Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue, state that Sheeran copied “certain phrases and words” from their song for Shape Of You . It concerns the song Oh Why, which Chokri released in 2015 under the name Sami Switch. Shape Of You was released in 2017. The song became a worldwide hit, and is still the most streamed song ever on Spotify.
Ed filed a lawsuit in 2018 and at the time asked the Supreme Court for a declaration that he and his co-writers had not infringed the copyrights of Chokri and O’Donoghue. The latter then filed their own lawsuit, in which they demanded, among other things, compensation and part of the proceeds of the song.
Ed Sheeran has been scoring hit after hit with his sensitive notes for years. He continues that success with his latest album Equals . Although he shows a completely different side of himself with his new music. Our own Marieke Elsinga spoke to him about his musical metamorphosis.