Ed Sheeran’s High Court “Shape Of You” copyright case continued in London, U.K., Tuesday. The singer has been accused of ripping off grime artist Sami Switch, whose real name is Sami Chokri, and Ross O’Donoghue’s 2015 song “Oh Why”.
The pair claim the “Oh I, oh I, oh I” hook off his 2017 smash hit “Shape Of You” is too similar to a hook they wrote. READ MORE: Ed Sheeran Defends ‘Shape Of You’ As London High Court Copyright Trial Continues Sheeran sang bits of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” and Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” to illustrate how if “you put them all in the same key, they’ll sound the same,” he told the courtroom Tuesday, according to the BBC.
The court played voice memos and draft vocals from Sheeran’s recording sessions; in one, he can be heard saying that he could do with changing the “Oh I” melody.
The musician shared, “We thought it was a bit too close to a song called ‘No Diggity’ by Blackstreet. I said that was a bit close to the bone [and] we should change it.” When asked if he thought his much-loved track bore a similarity to Chokri’s song, he told the court: “Fundamentally, yes, they are based around the pentatonic scale [and] they both have vowels in them,” insisting he didn’t come up with the tune after listening to Chokri’s.
Read more on etcanada.com