Miley Cyrus Sued by Bruno Mars Copyright Company for ‘Flowers,’ Claiming ‘When I Was Your Man’ Similarity

Miley Cyrus Sued by Bruno Mars Copyright Company for ‘Flowers,’ Claiming ‘When I Was Your Man’ Similarity

Miley Cyrus is facing a lawsuit.

The suit claims she and co-songwriters Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack copied portions of a Bruno Mars single when they wrote her Grammy-winning smash “Flowers,” via Rolling Stone.

The lawsuit was filed Monday (September 16) in Los Angeles by Tempo Music Investments, which claims “Flowers” includes unauthorized “exploitation” of several elements of the 2013 Bruno Mars hit, “When I Was Your Man.” The suit also names Sony Music Publishing, Apple, Target, Walmart, and other companies as defendants accused of distributing “Flowers.”

Tempo owns part of the U.S. copyrights to the Bruno song, which it acquired from co-writer Philip Lawrence. Bruno, and co-writers Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt, are not named as plaintiffs in the suit, notably.

The lawsuit additionally notes that co-writer Michael Pollack “refused to comment” on the “Flowers’” similarity to “When I Was Your Man” in an
interview with Billboard in March 2023. Billboard also noted that Philip Lawrence once said that “When I Was Your Man” was inspired in part by the artistry of Billy Joel.

“Any fan of Bruno Mars’ ‘When I Was Your Man’ knows that Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ did not achieve all of that success on its own. ‘Flowers’ duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements of ‘When I Was Your Man,’ including the melodic pitch design and sequence of the verse, the connecting bass-line, certain bars of the chorus, certain theatrical music elements, lyric elements, and specific chord progressions,” the suit claims, saying they are “substantially similar,” in particular the opening vocal line from the chorus of “Flowers.”

“It is undeniable based on the combination and number of similarities between the two recordings that ‘Flowers’ would not exist without ‘When I Was Your Man.’ With ‘Flowers,’ Cyrus, Hein, and Pollack have created a derivative work of ‘When I Was Your Man’ without authorization.”

The lawsuit seeks damages “in an amount to be determined at trial,” or the maximum of $150,000 per infringement.