Musicologists conclude that Shape Of You rips off Oh Why – or doesn’t – as Ed Sheeran song-theft case proceeds

completemusicupdate.com:

The ongoing song theft dispute in London’s high court over Ed Sheeran’s hit ‘Shape Of You’ got to the musicologist stage this week.

Both sides in the dispute had expert musicologists analyse the similarities between Sheeran’s song and Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue’s earlier track ‘Oh Why’.

And who’d have thought it possible, but Sheeran’s musicologist reckons the similarities between the two songs are coincidental, while Chokri’s expert says that’s highly unlikely.Chokri reckons that Sheeran got a copy of his 2015 track ‘Oh Why’ through mutual friends or industry connections, not least because he’d tried very hard to get his song in front of the star.

Then, the theory goes, when Sheeran and his songwriting pals got together in late 2016 to write ‘Shape Of You’, Sheeran either consciously or subconsciously utilised a key element of the earlier song within his hit.But Sheeran and his collaborators deny having ever heard ‘Oh Why’ before writing ‘Shape Of You’.