He’s one of the most brilliant songwriters of our time but now Ed Sheeran‘s credibility is being questioned after being slapped with a plagiarism lawsuit.
A company called Structured Asset Sales has filed a US $100 million lawsuit against the singer, claiming that his his 2014 song ‘Thinking Out Loud’ is a blatant rip off of Marvin Gaye‘s 1973 classic ‘Let’s Get It On’.
According to the lawsuit, Sheeran’s song has the same melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bassline, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping as the ’70s banger, which was written by Gaye and a guy named Edward Townsend in 1973.
When Townsend passed away in 2003, Structured Asset Sales bought one third of the copyright and they are demanding 1/3 of what the song’s worth which TMZ alleges is $100 million.
Sheeran’s track was a smash hit when it came out, scoring Grammy nominations for Best Record, Song of the Year and Best Performance in 2016, winning the later two.
According to the documents, Ed’s single and album, X sold more than 15 million copies and the song has been played on YouTube more than a billion times.
It is unclear whether or not the Gaye family will become involved in the legal proceedings. They famously took on Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. over their 2013 smash ‘Blurred Lines’ which they believed resembled Gaye’s ‘Got to Give It Up.’
They were awarded $7.4 million in damages in 2015.
