Miley Cyrus is being sued for copyright infringement over her 2023 hit Flowers.
The 31-year-old singer was sued for copyright infringement after allegedly copying Bruno Mars’ previous hit When I Was Your Man, which was released in 2013 and also topped the charts.
However, it is not Mars that is suing Cyrus, but Tempo Music Investments, TMZ reported on Monday.
DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Cyrus and Mars for comment.
In the lawsuit, Tempo Music accused Cyrus of “intentionally” copying When I Was Your Man in Flowers because of the two songs’ strong similarities.
Miley Cyrus, 31, is being sued by Tempo Music Investments for allegedly plagiarizing Bruno Mars’ song When I Was Your Man on her 2023 hit Flowers; photographed in February in LA
Mars, which is not a plaintiff, sold part of its music catalog to Warner Music Group in 2020, which invested in Tempo Music Group; pictured in Las Vegas in 2018
According to the investment firm, Flowers has a similar melody and harmonies to the previous song, both in the verses and chorus.
It has been claimed that the chord progressions used in Cyrus’ melody (which she co-wrote with Aldae (real name: Gregory Hein) and Michael Pollack) are similar to the progressions in Mars’ song. It has also been claimed that some of the lyrics are similar to When I Was Your Man, which Mars co-wrote with Philip Lawrence, Ari Levin and Andrew Wyatt.
Tempo alleges in the lawsuit that “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.”
Both songs were hits for their respective artists, both reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
When I Was Your Man was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in 2014, but Flowers had even greater success.
The song won the Record Of The Year award, an award that honors songwriters, and Mars was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance.
Flowers was also nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys, but did not win the award.
Tempo Music accuses Cyrus, her producers Kid Harpoon and Tyler Harper, and her record label of all having access to the Mars song, when virtually everyone has access to the song. It was a hit when it came out a decade earlier and has since been readily available on physical media and streaming.
The investment firm is seeking damages from Cyrus, but it is unclear whether a specific amount has been requested.
In an even more severe measure, the company is demanding that she and her label no longer be allowed to distribute Flowers, which could mean removing the song from digital and future physical versions of her 2023 album Endless Summer Vacation. The company is also demanding that Cyrus never be allowed to perform the popular song again.
It appears that Tempo Music, not Mars, filed the lawsuit after the company reportedly acquired part of the song’s copyright.
In May 2021, it was reported that the Uptown Funk hitmaker had sold part of his song catalog to Warner Music Group six months earlier.
Few details about the scale of the deal were released at the time, but Mars (real name: Peter Hernandez) is said to still have a majority stake in its catalog.
In late 2019, Warner Music Group and Providence Equity Partners announced plans to invest $650 million in a new platform, Tempo Music Investments, according to Variety.
Tempo Music, which claims to own part of Mars’ copyright, says Flowers bears a strong resemblance to the melody, harmonies, chord structure and lyrics of When I Was Your Man; Cyrus is pictured in the music video for Flowers
Mars’ song was a hit in 2013 but didn’t win a Grammy. Cyrus’ song also topped the Billboard Hot 100, but she also won Record of the Year (for songwriter) and Best Pop Solo Performance, for which Mars was nominated but lost; Mars on display in LA in 2021
The investment firm wants money from Cyrus and wants her banned from distributing or ever performing Flowers live again; pictured in LA in February
Tempo was founded to invest in artists’ catalogs, both for their master recordings and for their publishing rights.
In recent years, it has become increasingly common for artists to sell their catalogues in whole or in part to investment companies such as Tempo or its larger competitor Hipgnosis Songs Fund.
The move provides artists, many of whom – including Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan – are near the end of their careers, with a huge payday, while the companies then benefit from royalties on the songs.
It is less common for younger artists like Mars to sell their catalogs, although he himself sold only a portion of his work.