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Ed Sheeran is currently facing a lawsuit from songwriter Ed Townsend’s estate due to similarities between his song “Thinking Out Loud” and the Townsend/Marvin Gaye collaboration “Let’s Get It On”.
The court papers, filed by Townsend read: “The melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic compositions of ‘Thinking’ are substantially and/or strikingly similar to the drum composition of ‘Let’s.’”
While Sheeran has given no official statement on the matter, he has previously mashed up both songs at concerts, as can be seen in the above video taken in Zürich.
Whether coincidence the two songs share so much in common will be judged in court, but can it really be coincidence considering Sheeran has openly recognised the two songs sound very similar?.
Ed Sheeran getting sued for allegedly copying Marvin Gaye song
This is the second time the musician has got into trouble for allegedly copying another song; in June, he was sued for $20 million by The X Factor winner Matt Cardle's songwriters who claimed that Sheeran's ballad "Photograph" was "a note-for-note copy" of their song ‘Amazing."
In March 2015, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were ordered to pay out $7.3 million to Marvin Gaye's family following claims their controversial chart-topper "Blurred Lines" copied the Motown musician's 1977 track "Got To Give It Up."
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Sheeran wrote "Thinking Out Loud" alongside Amy Wadge. It became the first song to be streamed over 500 million times on Spotify and its video has racked up over 1.2 billion views on YouTube.
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