Miley Cyrus is facing legal action over allegations that her hit single “Flowers,” co-written with others, copied elements of Bruno Mars' song “When I Was Your Man.”
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in a Los Angeles federal court by Tempo Music Investments, claims that “Flowers” includes unauthorized “exploitation” of the 2013 song. According to the suit, “Flowers” allegedly duplicates several key aspects of Mars’ track, including “numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements,” as well as the “melodic pitch design and sequence of the verse” and the “connecting bass line."
Bruno Mars himself is not listed as a plaintiff. However, Tempo Music, which owns a portion of "When I Was Your Man" after purchasing it from co-writer Philip Lawrence, has brought the case forward.
Cyrus won her first Grammy earlier this year for “Flowers,” which topped the charts for eight weeks in the US and 10 weeks in the UK.