American singer Miley Cyrus has been sued by a music rights platform in a federal court in Los Angeles, accusing her of copied parts of a song by the artist Bruno Mars to compose their hit “Flowers,” which won the Grammy for record of the year.
Cyrus and her songwriting team are accused in the lawsuit filed Monday of “unauthorized exploitation of various elements” from the song ‘When I was Your Man’ (2013), as well as distributors such as Sony Music or Apple and American department stores Target and Walmart are also cited for having distributed ‘Flowers’.
The complaint was presented by Tempo Music, a music rights acquisition platform that, since its creation in 2019, has worked in partnership with Warner Music and has already purchased the repertoire of artists such as rapper Wiz Khalifa and country figure Shane McAnally.
Tempo Music claims to own part of the U.S. copyright to “When I Was Your Man” after acquiring it from Philip Lawrence, who co-wrote the song with Mars and Ari Levine, among others. “Flowers” reproduces many melodic, harmonic and lyrical elements of “When I Was Your Man”, including the design of the tone and sequence of the verse, certain measures of the chorus, certain musical parts and specific chords,” it is specified in the legal document where Bruno Mars does not appear as a plaintiff.
Likewise, it is added that it is “undeniable” that “Flowers” would not exist without “When I Was Your Man” due to the large number of similarities between the two recordings. Up-tempo music demands that distribution of “Flowers” be stopped and that Cyrus no longer perform it publiclyin addition to compensation for damages, the amount of which has not yet been specified. “Flowers” became the most-streamed song in a single week in Spotify’s history, while “When I Was Your Man” topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart after its release in 2013.
