LONDON | The High Court in London was able to discover by mistake in preview a brief preview of an unpublished song by Ed Sheeran, to the great astonishment of the British singer prosecuted for plagiarism for his hit “Shape Of You”.
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“It’s a song I wrote last January. How did you get that?” the 31-year-old artist was surprised, turning to his lawyers on the third day of the trial, which opened last Friday in the British capital.
Ed Sheeran, British pop star, is accused by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue of being partly inspired by their title “Oh Why” for the melody of his planetary hit “Shape Of You”, the best-selling title in the world in 2017. Charges that the singer and his co-authors, Steven McCutcheon and John McDaid, reject.
Ian Mill, lawyer for Ed Sheeran, explained moments later that the unreleased track had been played “by mistake” on Steven McCutcheon’s computer, which “contains unreleased tracks”.
In 2017, Ed Sheeran was the fastest-selling artist in the world, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), with his third album ‘Divide’ which includes the single ‘Shape Of You’. .