Miley Cyrus sued over ‘Flowers,’ accused of copying Bruno Mars song

Copyright Credit: AP Photo

The lawsuit claims that her Grammy-winning hit copies lyrical and melodic elements from Bruno Mars’ 2013 song ‘When I Was Your Man’.

Pop megastar Miley Cyrus is facing a lawsuit over claims that her 2023 hit ‘Flowers’ borrows from Bruno Mars’ 2013 ballad “When I Was Your Man.”

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles federal court by Tempo Music Investments, accuses Cyrus and her co-writers, Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack, of unauthorised use of Mars’ song.

“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,'” the documents argues, adding that ‘Flowers’ “duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements” of Mars’ track.

Major companies like Sony Music Publishing, Apple, Target, and Walmart, which distributed ‘Flowers’, are named in the suit.

Tempo Music Investments is demanding that Cyrus and the other defendants named in the lawsuit cease reproducing, distributing, or publicly performing the track. The company is also seeking damages, though the exact amount has yet to be determined.

‘Flowers’ earned Cyrus her first Grammy at this year’s ceremony for Best Pop Solo Performance. The track also set a new record as the fastest song to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify, achieving the milestone just 112 days after its release on 12 January 2023.