大象传媒

Ed Sheeran has won a court case over song Shape of You

Ed SheeranImage source, PA Media
Image caption,

Ed Sheeran and his co-writers said the case had caused "immense" stress

Ed Sheeran has been in court after being accused of copying part of another artist's song.

Singer-song writer Sami Chokri claimed that the chorus of Ed's song Shape of You had parts that were "strikingly similar" to his song "Oh Why."

During the hearing, Ed said he had no memory of hearing Sami Chokri's song before releasing his song.

And Judge Antony Zacaroli ruled in Sheeran's favour saying that he had "neither deliberately nor subconsciously copied" Chokri's song.

Ed's song 'Shape of You' was the UK's best-selling song of 2017 and is Spotify's most-streamed song, ever!

Image source, PA Media
Image caption,

Sami Chokri who said the court battle was "the worst few weeks of my life"

Chokri claimed that the 'Oh I' hook in Ed's song sounds a lot like his hook 'Oh Why'.

The judge said that although there were some similarities between the two songs, Ed was not at fault.

He said: "Differences between the relevant parts" of the songs, which "provides compelling evidence that the 'Oh I' phrase" in Sheeran's song "originated from sources other than Oh Why".

Media caption,

What is copyright? 大象传媒 lawyer Maeve Lynch explains

Shape of You was written by Ed, Snow Patrol's John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon who all said they hadn't heard Sami's song 'Oh Why' before writing 'Shape of You.'

The trial involved Forensic musicologists listening to the songs to help decide whether or not copyright laws had been broken.

Both Ed and Sami have described the court case as hard.

Ed's legal team said the case had been "deeply traumatising" and Sami said it had been "the worst few weeks" of his life.

Ed released a statement on social media explaining what had happened and thanking his fans for their support he ended it by saying: "Hopefully we can all get back to writing songs, rather than having to prove that we can write them."