Ed Sheeran sings in court amid Marvin Gaye copyright battle
Ed Sheeran sang in court in an attempt to prove his innocence amid his copyright battle.
Ed Sheeran sang in court in an attempt to prove his innocence.
The 32-year-old pop star is being sued by Kathryn Griffin Townsend for allegedly ripping off the 1973 classic track 'Let's Get It On', which was co-written by her late father Ed Townsend and famously performed by Marvin Gaye, for his number one hit 'Thinking Out Loud', and he picked up his guitar and briefly sang for the jury during the trial on Thursday (27.04.23).
On the stand in New York he said: "When I write vocal melodies, it’s like phonetics."
The 'Perfect' hitmaker then sang the phrase "I’m singing out now", which he explained was the original line when he was writing the song with collaborator Amy Wadge, and played the chord progression to the court.
He also sang his track's opening line: "When your legs don’t work like they used to.”
Ed explained the courtroom that he preferred to "write quickly" and claimed that he has even penned eight or nine songs in a day, with some tunes being put together in a matter of minutes in the past.
Lawyers for Kathryn previously showed Ed and members of the jury the two songs being performed live in a video that transitioned one into the other "seamlessly" and argued his 2014 concert footage amounted to proof of the alleged plagiarism.
Ed replied: "Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs … if I had done what you’re accusing me of doing, I’d be a quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that!"
On Wednesday (26.04.23), Kathryn collapsed once she was outside the doors and was lying on the ground while someone shouted for a medic.
Judge Louis L. Stanton later announced that she had been taken to hospital.
Although her lawyer has not disclosed the reason for her fainting, they said she has a pre-existing medical condition.
At the time she collapsed, music expert Alexander Stewart was being cross-examined.
