In “Flowers”, Miley Cyrus sings that she “can take herself dancing”. Now, she must take herself to court as her Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit is getting sued for allegedly copying Bruno Mars’ 2013 song “When I Was Your Man.”
The 31-year-old Grammy-winning singer is hit with a lawsuit filed by Tempo Music Investments, which owns a share of the copyright in Mars’ ballad hit. The company claims there are “striking similarities” between the two tracks.
The company, which acquired portions of the copyright after purchasing songwriter Philip Lawrence’s catalog, claims “based on the combination and number of similarities” that “Flowers” would not exist without “When I Was Your Man.” They further allege that Cyrus, alongside co-writers Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack “duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements” of Mars’ track. All three of them have been named as defendants in the case among multiple others. Mars, currently on his world tour, is not part of the plaintiffs.
Similarities between the two chart-topping hits have been a topic of discussion among listeners since the moment “Flowers” dropped. In the self love anthem’s chorus, Cyrus’ lyrics goes “I can buy myself flowers” in a melody that faintly resembles “When I Was Your Man”’s intro, while the lyrics seemingly replies to the part of the song that goes, “I should’ve bought you flowers.” The next part of the chorus also goes “I can take myself dancing,” while Mars’ track goes “take you to every party ‘cause all you wanted to do was dance.”
Fans speculate that these resemblances were a dig at Cyrus’ ex-husband Liam Hemsworth, with whom she was married to from 2018 to 2020. Now, it looks like some executives see these as grounds for payday instead.