Miley Cyrus has been sued for her song “Flowers” due to noticeable similarities with Bruno Mars’ “When I was Your Man”. “Flowers” had won the Grammy award this year for the best pop solo performance. Tempo Music Investments, who claim to own a share in Bruno Mars’ song has filed the suit.
The suit claims that Cyrus has copied some portion of Mars’ song without taking permission resulting in intellectual copyright infringement. The firm has alleged that Cyrus has taken parts of the melody structure as well as some lyrics used in “Flowers” from Bruno Mars’ popular Grammy winning song. Mars’ song was a lament regretting not treating his woman better. Whereas Cyrus’ song takes another perspective where she talks of self empowerment and independence.
The plaintiff argues Miley Cyrus’ song is not so different in spite of the difference in theme
Whereas Bruno Mars’ song says “I should have bought flowers and held your hand”, Cyrus’ words go like “I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand”. One can also perceive this as a reply to Mars. The accusing party argued that although the lyrics and melody are quite different, in spite of the the difference in perspectives the songs are yet quite similar. They even claimed that the melody and chord progressions are similar in the songs. They also named Sony Music Publishing, Apple, Target, Walmart, and several other companies for distributing “Flowers“.
This is not the only case of copyright infringement in recent times. Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Ray – all of these singers have faced such lawsuits. Miley Cyrus or her team has not come up with any statement regarding the matter yet.
