UK singer Ed Sheeran has been embroiled in a copyright infringement lawsuit for the past few years, but was only recently ordered to stand trial in court last year. The lawsuit involves Sheeran’s 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud” allegedly being a rip-off of R&B singer Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On”.
Sheeran’s attorneys have tried battling the claims of infringement since the singer had brought them on board, but have been unsuccessful in their attempts. Sheeran himself has recently upped the ante regarding the trial, claiming that he will cease his music career entirely should he be found guilty of infringing Gaye’s copyright. Per New York Post, Sheeran said “If that happens, I’m done. I find it really insulting to work my whole life as a singer-songwriter and diminish it.”
According to Consequence of Sound, Sheeran denies similarities between Gaye’s song from 1973 and his own from the last decade. They also said that Sheeran reportedly went as far as “belting out various mashups of Van Morrison songs for the courtroom on [May 1].” They cited that it likely didn’t help him in trial as much as he thought it would’ve.
While this lawsuit may have only escalated to trial recently, the case hasn’t only affected Sheeran and Gaye. This lawsuit first began back in 2018 when the estate of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On” with Gaye, filed the case against Sheeran. As reported in Entertainment Weekly, Sheeran’s co-writer for his hit “Thinking Out Loud” took to the stand to make the claim that “The infringement allegations were “devastating” and”frightening because it’s something that we did not do.”
Sheeran’s “Mathematics Tour” kicks off this weekend in Arlington, Texas at the AT&T Stadium, but the singer hasn’t mentioned whether the active lawsuit will affect his future shows.
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