Ed Sheeran sings and plays guitar on the witness stand in copyright lawsuit
The New York jury was invited Thursday (April 27) to a free Ed Sheeran concert in the singer’s ongoing plagiarism trial.
The British artist is being sued by the heirs of Ed Townsend, the songwriter who composed Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On. with the legendary soul singer.
The plaintiffs allege that Sheeran’s 2014 song “Thinking Out Loud” copied harmonic progressions, melodic and rhythmic elements from “Let’s Get It On” without permission, which Sheeran denies.
To illustrate his point, the Grammy-winning singer played the basic chord progression of “Thinking Out Loud” on the witness stand Thursday.
Accordingly abc newsSheeran also briefly sang what he said were the original lyrics of the song: “I’m singing out now.”
Sheeran testified that he wrote most of his songs in one day and didn’t think of copying Gaye’s iconic track while he was composing Thinking Out Loud.
Writing the song with collaborator Amy Wadge, Sheeran said, “We sat guitar to guitar … We wrote quite a bit together.”
Ed Sheeran arrives in Manhattan federal court for his copyright infringement case
(Getty Images)
The court has now adjourned for the week after its third day, and Sheeran is scheduled to testify again at the trial on Monday.
The second day of the trial was dramatic after plaintiff Kathryn Townsend Griffin collapsed in court.
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Griffen, Townsend’s daughter, reportedly passed out when Sheeran’s lawyers began cross-examining a music expert and was hospitalized.
On the same day, the courtroom erupted in laughter after hearing an AI-generated version of “Let’s Get it On.”
On Tuesday (April 25), plaintiff’s attorney, Ben Crump, presented video of one of Sheeran’s past live performances, in which he “mixed up” his track with “Let’s Get It On.”
The lawyer labeled the video, which can be seen on YouTube, as a “smoking gun.”
“This concert video is a confession,” Crump said.
Sheeran’s attorney, Ilene S. Farkas, countered by arguing that the video did not prove copyright infringement and stressing the fact that Sheeran frequently mash-ups during gigs.
The process should take up to two weeks.
In April 2022, Sheeran won a separate copyright lawsuit after being accused of plagiarizing his song “Shape of You” from Sami Chokri’s 2015 song “Oh Why.”
