According to rollingstone.com, artists Sam Smith and Normani have won the alleged copyright lawsuit filed by the alleged songwriters who allegedly claimed Smith’s song “Dancing With a Stranger” was  allegedly a copy their own alleged track.

Jordan Vincent, Christopher Miranda and Rosco Banlaoi alleged that their song “Dancing With Strangers” was allegedly infringed by Smith’s duet with Normani, which shares the same chorus line “dancing with a stranger.” The song reached over 500,000 streams after being uploaded on Soundcloud back in 2015.

As reported in Billboard and Rolling Stone, Californian judge Wesley L Hsu dismissed the case on September 6 by stating that “most if not all of the plaintiff’s claimed similarities” were not protectable by law and that the phrase “dancing with a stranger” was not unique enough. The judge also pointed  out “nearly 20 references” in other previous songs.

According to theguardian.com, Smith’s legal team had previously described the alleged legal claim as “rambling,” “nonsensical,” “repetitive” and that it “relies on hyperbole and ignores established circuit law.”

Released in 2019, “Dancing With a Stranger ” reached number three in the UK singles chart and number 7 in the US, where it spent 45 weeks on the chart.

The victory follows numerous recent wins by artist Ed Sheeran against songwriters who had claimed he allegedly infringed their work. In March 2022, Sheeran won a case against Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue who had allegedly claimed the artist’s song “Shape of You” allegedly  infringed their own track “Oh Why.”

Then back in May, Sheeran won two other alleged lawsuits that were allegedly filed against him over alleged similarities between his song “Thinking Out Loud” and Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”

“These chords are common building blocks which were used to create music long before Let’s Get It On was written and will be used to make music long after we are all gone.They are a songwriter’s alphabet – our tool kit, and should be there for us all to use. No one owns them or the way they are played, in the same way nobody owns the colour blue.”said Sheeran.

Photo Credit: Tori Kerr