Ed Sheeran’s longtime collaborator Amy Wadge has had his “Thinking Out Loud” copyright victory verdict tattooed on her arm.
Sheeran had been sued by the heirs of Ed Townsend, the songwriter who composed Marvin Gaye’s soul classic “Let’s Get It On” with him.
They alleged Sheeran’s 2014 song “Thinking Out Loud” copied harmonic progressions, melodic and rhythmic elements from “Let’s Get It On” without permission.
After nearly two weeks of court hearings, the New York jury ruled unanimously that the British singer-songwriter was not liable for copyright infringement.
Now, Sheeran’s co-writer Wagde has had the words “independently created” inked in a typewriter-style typeface on her left arm.
Wadge also shared a photograph of her new tattoo on Instagram.
“Had to be done thank you @eldannydiablx for my new ink!” she wrote in the caption. “Leaving New York and heading home to my family after three of the toughest weeks of my life but I’m so grateful for the love and support I’ve received and still on cloud nine about the verdict!
“Also special mention to my utterly amazing manager @goodpeoplemanagment who has literally held me up through it all #independentlycreated,” she added.
Jurors found Sheeran and Wadge had “independently created” their song and had not infringed on the copyright of Gaye’s song.
In his statement after winning the trial, Sheeran said: “I’m unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all.
“We’ve spent the last eight years talking about two songs with dramatically different lyrics, melodies and four chords, which are also different and are used by songwriters every day, all over the world.
“These chords are common building blocks, which were used to create music long before ‘Let’s Get It On’ was written and will be used to make music long after we are all gone.”
“I think we proved for all to see that they tried to manipulate my and Amy’s song to try and convince the jury that they had a genuine claim. I’m very grateful that the jury saw through those attempts,” he said.
