Sounds like a hit

• Published date: 19 March 2022
• Publication title: Mix, The

For singer Katy Perry the resolution of a long-running plagiarism claim has surely come as a relief. A California court ruled this month that she will not now have to pay the rapper Flame (real name Marcus Gray) $US2.8million (about $NZ4million) in compensation for the use of a nine-note sequence in one of her hits

Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran, who remains embroiled in the defence of the latest of a string of alleged breaches of copyright, has treated lawyers to an impromptu performance of a Nina Simone tune to make a point about the essential building blocks of a song, in the High Court in London.

Such high-profile legal tussles have now become part of the burden of being an A-lister, a kind of occupational hazard for the elite group of international musicians who regularly bring out tracks that make them yet another fortune.

‘‘People only come for you like this if you have written a really huge song. Only a tiny minority are in this hallowed realm, with billion-streaming songs,’’ said Guy Chambers, who composed some of Robbie Williams’ biggest hits with him, including Angels and Let Me Entertain You. ‘‘Although claims are getting more common, it’s not going to happen to many people. Early on in my career I heard the old industry saying, ‘where there’s a hit, there’s a writ’, and it’s true.’’

Chambers and Williams were in the line of fire together once. They went through a legal wrangle over Jesus in a Camper Van, a track from the platinum-selling album I’ve Been Expecting You.

‘‘So far I haven’t really had a dispute over the music. The case Robbie and I had was about lyrics, where it tends to be slightly more clear cut,’’ Chambers said.

Williams and Chambers lost the case and a judge ordered that 25% of income generated by the song be paid to Ludlow Music and that it be dropped from future copies of the album.

Sheeran, together with co-writers Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac, are continuing to defend themselves against the accusation that they stole an eight-note refrain from the relatively unknown grime act Sami Switch, real name Sami Chokri.

The case centres on the hook line of Sheeran’s 2017 hit Shape of You which, it is claimed, has a ‘‘striking similarity’’ to the chorus of Chokri’s 2015 single Oh Why. Sheeran (31) denies pinching the musical phrase and told the court last week that he had not heard Chokri’s song until he learned of the claim. Four years ago, in a preemptive swoop, Sheeran and his fellow songwriters asked for a legal declaration that they had...