Ed Sheeran has won his copyright infringement trial, in which he fought allegations that the British singer cribbed from Marvin Gaye’s 1973 song Let’s Get It On for his 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud, which was awarded the Grammy for song of the year in 2016.
The suit, originally filed in 2017, was brought by the descendants of Gaye’s co-writer, Ed Townsend. The three plaintiffs allege that Sheeran and co-writer Amy Wadge stole “the heart” of the soul classic by using “melodic, harmonic and rhythmic compositions” that are “substantially and/or strikingly similar to the drum composition” of the song. (Gaye died in 1984; Townsend died in 2003.)
The two-week trial in New York offered moments of levity as well as frustration for the mega-star, who is one of the most-streamed artists of the 2010s. (Another Sheeran hit, Shape of You – itself the focus of a UK copyright lawsuit that he won – was Spotify’s most-streamed track of the decade.) Sheeran pulled out a guitar several times, appeared to threaten the end of his career if he lost and expressed disdain for a case that, as one entertainment lawyer put it to the Guardian, had “a whiff of the US celebrity lawsuit about it”.
Here are some key moments from the trial:
A court concert
Sheeran’s defense rested on the ubiquity of certain musical standards and chord progressions, which are not owned by a single artist. In the early days of the trial the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Ben Crump, played a video of Sheeran transitioning seamlessly between Thinking Out Loud and Let’s Get It On during a concert in Zurich, arguing that it amounted to a confession.
“Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs … if I had done what you’re accusing me of doing, I’d be a quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that,” Sheeran replied.
A day later, he offered a demonstration accompanied by his usual acoustic guitar. In over an hour of testimony, Sheeran explained how he wrote Thinking Out Loud with his friend and co-writer, Wadge, at his home in England in 2014. “I draw inspiration from a lot from things in my life and family,” he said, explaining how the song was inspired by the love he witnessed between his grandparents.
Sheeran demonstrated how his original line, “singing out now”, morphed into the song’s eventual title: “When I write vocal melodies, it’s like phonetics,” he said.
He then picked up a guitar from behind the witness stand, played the chord progression to the song and sang the opening line: “When your legs don’t work like they used to before.”
A lesson on chord progressions
Later in the trial, Sheeran performed another mini-concert, using his guitar to demonstrate how a common chord progression could allow him to transition easily between Thinking Out Loud, Let’s Get It On and many other popular songs. Sheeran played a mash-up of his music as well as hits from Van Morrison, Blackstreet, Nina Simone and Bill Withers, as evidence that songs with similar structures can be seamlessly blended.
Asked about the combinations by his lawyer, Ilene Farkas, Sheeran said he used mashups to “spice it up a bit” during concerts, generally choosing songs that build on similar chords. “If it’s a love song, you might mash it up with another love song,” he said, suggesting that Elvis Presley’s version of Can’t Help Falling in Love or the Whitney Houston rendition of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You would mix well with Thinking Out Loud.
Sheeran threatens to quit music if found guilty
The singer’s cheerful concert demeanor soured on Monday when asked by Farkas, his lawyer, on what would happen if the plaintiffs won ownership over the chord progression at question. “If that happens, I’m done. I’m stopping,” he answered. “I find it really insulting to work my whole life as a singer-songwriter and diminish it.”
Sheeran’s legal team argued in court that his hit ballad and Gaye’s tune “share versions of a similar and unprotectable chord progression that was freely available to all songwriters”.
Sheeran said in court that he’d received encouragement from other songwriters worried about the trial’s implication for future litigation over their work. No names were offered, but the musician said others were “cheering” him on.
“When you write songs, somebody comes after you,” he said.
A different verdict would have been a problem for Sheeran, whose new album, Subtract, comes out on Friday, the day before he’s scheduled to kick off a North American tour in Arlington, Texas.
Plaintiff collapses
Sheeran’s first day of testimony was temporarily halted due to a medical emergency on behalf of one of the plaintiffs. Kathryn Townsend Griffin, the daughter of Gaye’s late co-writer Ed Townsend, collapsed and had to be carried out of court on a stretcher during the defense’s cross-examination of a music expert brought in to testify to the similarity between the two songs.
According to CNN, Townsend Griffin, wearing a beige coat emblazoned with the word “dignity” on the back, collapsed after her knees buckled and eyes closed, leading representatives from both legal teams to assist her amid shouts to call 911. She was removed from court on a stretcher and taken to a nearby hospital for what her lawyer later said was a pre-existing medical condition. Altogether, court proceedings were halted for 15 minutes.
AI ‘singing’
Earlier that day, said expert, musicologist Alexander Stewart, drew stifled laughs from several in the court room when he played an AI rendition of Let’s Get It On to demonstrate the two songs’ similarities, if one removed “groove” and other production elements from the track. Even Sheeran reportedly smiled as the computer voice “sang” Gaye’s sensual lyrics as part of a legal strategy.
He didn’t have much respect for Stewart or his argument, however. During his testimony, the singer argued that Stewart misrepresented and altered his song. “If I can be honest,” he said during cross-examination by one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, Patrick Frank, “I think what he’s doing here is criminal.”
Sheeran misses his grandmother’s funeral
One of several headlines from the two-week trial concerned what was happening far from the court room: Sheeran’s grandmother’s funeral. At the premiere of his new Disney+ docuseries Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All in New York on Tuesday, Sheeran revealed that his grandmother was laid to rest in Ireland while he was required to be in New York for the trial.
Asked by CBS anchor Gayle King about his busy week, Sheeran answered: “I’ve got the documentary coming out tomorrow, I’ve got the album coming out on Friday, I start my tour on Saturday, my grandmother’s funeral tomorrow, I’m still in this court case.”
