Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape Of You’ royalties have been suspended as he is accused of copying other artists’ songs

Ed Sheeran is currently not receiving any royalty payments for his hit song ‘Shape Of You’ after being accused of ‘appropriating’ the work of other songwriters.

The 28-year-old has denied allegations that he is “consciously or subconsciously in the habit of appropriating the compositional skill and labour of other songwriters.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The claims come from little-known singer Sam Chokri, who has lodged documents in the High Court alleging that Sheeran lifted the chorus for ‘Shape Of You’ from Chokri’s 2015 song ‘Oh Why’.

Chokri claims he sent the song to Ed Sheeran

Chokri claims that he sent the song to Sheeran’s ‘circle’ in an attempt to attract the star to work with him.

Instead, Chokri said he found that parts of his song were used and released as ‘Shape Of You’, which was the biggest-selling single of 2017 and generated an estimated £20million in revenue.

Chokri also highlights a number of other cases in which he believes that Sheeran has stolen from other artists.

Other copyright accusations

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

These include Sheeran being forced to include Shaggy in the credits for the song ‘Strip That Down’, which he co-wrote for Liam Payne.

It was found he’d used a melody from ‘It Wasn’t Me’.

He also had to give credits to TLC for similarities in that same song to their hit ‘No Scrubs’.

Sheeran has accused Chokri of damaging his reputation and blocking his revenue streams.

All royalties for Shape of You have been suspended pending the court’s ruling on the matter.