The British musician and singer, Ed Sheeran, won his civil lawsuit in New York on Thursday where he was prosecuted for plagiarizing a song by the American Marvin Gaye. The Manhattan federal court jury, which had been trying for ten days in this emblematic musical copyright case, found that the 32-year-old singer had created his song “independently” and that his planetary hit from 2014, Thinking Out Loud was therefore not a partial copy of the famous Let’s Get It On by the prince of soul Marvin Gaye in 1973.
The artist said he was “very happy” with his victory against an “unfounded” complaint. In a statement leaving Manhattan federal court, the 32-year-old King of Pop said he was also “incredibly frustrated” that such an iconic music copyright case “could go to court. “.
Sheeran, who has attended hearings since April 24 defending himself for plagiarizing Gaye’s title, stood up when the decision was announced, thanked the jury and gave his team a hug, according to an AFP journalist in the courtroom. The consequences of the outcome of this trial were important: a verdict against the singer could have “cooled down” the artists in musical creation, warned some musicologists and jurists.
The plaintiffs were heirs of Ed Townsend, an American musician and producer who co-wrote the song Let’s Get It On with Marvin Gaye, an African-American soul legend (1939-1984). The civil party pointed to “striking similarities and obvious common elements” between this song and Thinking Out Loud.
This is the second trial won in a year by Ed Sheeran: he also won a separate legal battle in April 2022 before the High Court in London, which dismissed two musicians accusing him of having copied one of their works for his mega hit Shape Of You. In New York, the British singer-songwriter even had to play the guitar and sing in court as a pledge of good faith.
