Miley Cyrus is being sued over allegations that she copied portions of Bruno Mars’ 2013 song “When I Was Your Man” for her own hit “Flowers.”
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Los Angeles federal court by Tempo Music Investments, which says it owns a portion of the copyright to Mars’ song after acquiring co-writer Philip Lawrence’s music catalog. Mars is not named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Co-writers Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack are also named, and Sony Music Publishing, Apple, Target, Walmart, Amazon, Live Nation and other companies are accused for distributing the song.
According to the lawsuit obtained by NBC News, “‘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.”
The lawsuit also states that “the opening vocal line from the chorus of ‘Flowers’ begins and ends on the same chords as the opening vocal line in the verse of ‘When I Was Your Man.’ ”
Among other accusations are a comparison of lyrics of the two songs, which the lawsuit suggests are “no coincidence.”
“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 states.
Tempo Music Investments is seeking damages to be determined at trial or “the maximum of $150,000 per infringement,” a number that could be astronomical due to record-breaking number of streams. Its also demanding that the listed defendants stop reproducing, distributing or publicly performing “Flowers.”
Representatives for Cyrus and Mars did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Released in 2023, “Flowers” was the breakout hit from Cyrus’ eighth studio album “Endless Summer.” It debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent eight non-consecutive weeks leading the charts and 57 weeks atop the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The song also broke a string of records on streaming services, including the Spotify record for reaching 1 billion streams faster than any other song in Spotify history. “Flowers” also holds the record for the most-streamed song in a single week.
Cyrus also won Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2024 Grammy Awards for “Flowers.”
Read the lawsuit here: