Miley Cyrus is confronting a potential legal challenge: a copyright infringement lawsuit concerning her Grammy-winning track, “Flowers.”
On Monday, Cyrus, 31, was sued in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The lawsuit claims that she and her co-writers for “Flowers” copied elements from Bruno Mars’ 2013 song, “When I Was Your Man.”
Tempo Music Investments, which asserts it holds part of the copyright to “When I Was Your Man” after purchasing rights from songwriter Philip Lawrence, filed the suit over the alleged “unauthorized reproduction, distribution, and exploitation” of the song.
Lawrence co-wrote “When I Was Your Man” alongside Mars, Ari Levine, and Andrew Wyatt.
Mars is not listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, and his representative has yet to respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
The lawsuit also names over two dozen other companies accused of distributing the song.
Cyrus’ representative has not yet responded to NBC News’ request for comment.
What claims does the lawsuit make?
Tempo Music Investments’ attorneys contended that the similarities between the two songs result from “intentional copying.”
“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,” the legal team stated.
“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.”
Tempo’s lawyers highlighted the harmony and melody of both choruses, claiming they are “substantially similar.”
Additionally, they argued that many lyrics in the choruses contain the same words or rhyming words.
The suit quoted from “When I Was Your Man”: “That I should’ve bought you flowers/And held your hand/Should have gave you all my hours …/Take you to every party, ‘cause all you wanted to do was dance.”
It contrasted those with Cyrus’ lyrics: “I can buy myself flowers/And I can hold my own hand/Talk to myself for hours/I can take myself dancing.”
Tempo also claimed the songs share the same chord progression and a similar “dramatic pause” in the chorus, as well as comparable melodic design in the post-chorus section.
“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 lawsuit asserted.
The company is seeking damages to be determined at trial and requests that a judge bar Cyrus and the other defendants from reproducing, distributing, and publicly performing “Flowers.”
Cyrus performed the song at the 2024 Grammy Awards in February, where she secured her first Grammy after nearly two decades in the industry. “Flowers” topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six weeks in 2023.
