According to Consequence, American singer-songwriter and pop star Taylor Swift has filed a new motion in her ongoing copyright lawsuit regarding the lyricism of her 2014 classic “Shake It Off.” The suit claims that Swift allegedly plagiarized the lyrics from 3LW’s 2000 song “Playas Gon’ Play.”
Swift wrote in an sworn declaration that the song’s lyrics “were written entirely by me” and claims that she had never heard of the song or musical group before the lawsuit was brought by lyricists Sean Hall and Nathan Butler.
“[I] drew partly on experiences in my life and, in particular, unrelenting public scrutiny of my personal life, ‘clickbait’ reporting, public manipulation, and other forms of negative personal criticism which I learned I just needed to shake off and focus on my music,” Swift said in regards to the inspiration behind the song’s lyrics.
She went on to say that she had heard the phrases “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate” throughout her childhood while living in Pennsylvania and Tennessee which lead her to write the lyrics “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/ And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.”
She also notes that she had heard variations in popular media such as songs and films, highlighting one particular song by Eric Church entitled “The Outsiders.” Swift’s mother Andrea recently made a statement explaining that she would “carefully monitor” what her daughter would watch and listen to.
To offer a brief history of the case, it began in 2017 when the lawsuit was first filed. It was then dismissed in 2018 by US District Judge Michael Fitzgerald before the decision was reversed in 2019. Swift has since been attempting to avoid standing trial.
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