Songwriter made “concerted plan” to “target” Ed Sheeran, High Court hears

nme.com:

Ed Sheeran was hit with a “concerted plan” to secure his interest in a songwriter who then accused him of copying one of his songs for ‘Shape Of You’, the High Court was told yesterday (March 15).Sheeran and two of his co-writers, Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac, have been accused of lifting “particular lines and phrases” for the 2017 ‘÷’ single from a track called ‘Oh Why’ by Sami Switch (real name Sam Chokri).The latter artist and his co-writer Ross O’Donoghue have alleged that Sheeran took the “oh I, oh I, oh I, oh I” hook from the aforementioned song, which was released back in 2015.

Sheeran has “vehemently den[ied]” the claim and rejected the suggestion that he heard ‘Oh Why’ before he wrote ‘Shape Of You’ in October 2016.McDaid, who is also a member of Snow Patrol, claimed in written evidence last week that he could not recall ever hearing ‘Oh Why’ “in any way” and said he was unaware of Sami Switch before the current legal case began.Yesterday (March 15) the ongoing copyright trial heard that the former management company of Chokri made a “huge effort” to bring Sami Switch’s song to Sheeran’s attention (via The Guardian).Lawyers for Chokri and O’Donoghue claimed that there is “clear, cogent and compelling” evidence to suggest that ‘Oh Why’ was widely available and sent to a some of Sheeran’s close friends and colleagues.David May – managing director of Artists and Company (A&C), which once had Chokri on its roster – alleged in written evidence that the company had “a concerted plan to target Ed Sheeran in the hope of engaging his interest in Sami’s work” at the time ‘Oh Why’ was being promoted.“We did not target any other artist in the same way,” he added.May continued: “We felt that, if Ed Sheeran could see Sami’s.