Miley Cyrus fights 'Flowers' lawsuit alleging she copied Bruno Mars' song

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Miley Cyrus isn’t backing down from her Flowers legal battle—in fact, she’s ready to nip it in the bud. The pop star is pushing back against allegations that her 2023 chart-topping single copied elements from Bruno Mars’ 2013 hit When I Was Your Man.

 

The lawsuit, which was filed by Tempo Music Investments in September 2024, claims that Cyrus’ track shares key melodic, harmonic, and lyrical similarities with Mars’ song. But Cyrus is singing a different tune—one of complete denial.

 

Importantly, Bruno Mars himself, along with the other co-writers of When I Was Your Man—Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt—haven’t been named as plaintiffs in the suit. 

 

From a previous post on DesignTAXI Community:

 

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The complaint highlights that the opening lines of both choruses feature nearly identical chord progressions, drawing comparisons between Mars’ line, “That I should have brought you flowers and held your hand,” and Cyrus’ response, “I can buy myself flowers and I can hold my own hand.”

 

Cyrus, who has taken a firm stance against the accusations, recently moved to dismiss the lawsuit. Tempo Music Investments, which holds partial ownership of the rights to When I Was Your Man through co-writer Philip Lawrence’s catalog, argues that the similarities between the songs go beyond coincidence. According to Tempo, the overlap is so significant that it believes Flowers simply wouldn’t exist without borrowing from Mars’ work. In response, it is seeking to stop the song’s reproduction and distribution, along with pursuing unspecified damages.

 

 

However, Cyrus’ legal team has fired back, asserting that Tempo lacks the legal standing to bring the case forward. They argue that because Tempo only owns a portion of the rights and not the exclusive rights to Mars’ song, it doesn’t have sufficient grounds to file the lawsuit.

 

Moreover, Cyrus’ lawyers maintain that the elements cited by Tempo are generic musical components, which are not protected under copyright law. The legal defense points out that Cyrus and her collaborators “categorically deny copying” and that any perceived similarities are merely coincidental, drawn from unprotected musical ideas and building blocks.

 

For now, it’s a waiting game, as the court has yet to issue a ruling on Cyrus’ motion to dismiss. The singer, who recently took home the Grammy for Record of the Year for Flowers, remains adamant that her track is entirely original.

 

 

• https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/music/bruno-mars-miley-cyrus-responds-flowers-702142-20241126 
• https://people.com/miley-cyrus-denies-bruno-mars-song-plagiarism-allegations-dismiss-flowers-lawsuit-8751434
• https://uproxx.com/pop/miley-cyrus-bruno-mars-flowers-lawsuit-dismissal-motion/ 

 

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