American pop star Miley Cyrus has been accused of copying parts of Bruno Mars' 2023 song "When I Was Your Man" with the co-writers of her 2013 single "Flowers."
The lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in Los Angeles by Tempo Music Investments, which claims that "Flowers" contains an unauthorized "exploitation" of the said song. Gregory Hein and Michael Polak are listed as co-authors, while Sony Music Publishing, Apple, Target, Walmart and other companies are accused of distributing the song.
Bruno Mars, however, was not named as a plaintiff. Tempo Music announced that it owns part of the copyright to the song "When I Was Your Man", purchased from co-writer Philip Lawrence.
Tempo Music is seeking damages, the amount of which has not yet been determined, as well as an injunction against Cyrus from reproducing, distributing or publicly performing the song.
"Any fan of Bruno Mars' 'When I Was Your Man' knows that Miley Cyrus' 'Flowers' did not achieve this success on her own. 'Flowers' copies many of the melodic, harmonic and lyrical elements of 'When I Was Your Man', including the melodic pitch arrangement and verse order, bass line, certain chorus beats, certain musical elements, lyrical elements and specific chord progressions," the lawsuit states.
"It is indisputable, based on the similarities between the two recordings, that 'Flowers' would not exist," claim Tempo Music.
The song "Flowers" earned Cyrus her first Grammy Award of the year for Best Pop Solo Performance. It spent eight weeks at number one in the US last year, and 10 weeks at the top in the UK.
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