Miley Cyrus bought herself flowers and copped a lawsuit from Bruno Mars’ team
Miley Cyrus has found herself smack bang in the middle of a copyright lawsuit.
The singer’s 2023 Grammy-award-winning anthem ‘Flowers’ is the subject of the lawsuit filed by Temple Music Investments, a company that owns shares of the copyrights of Bruno Mars’ 2012 song, ‘When I Was Your Man’.
Before Miley stans come for Bruno, it should be clarified that he himself has nothing to do with the lawsuit, rather, the corporates behind him that are concerned about the dollarydoos.
Bruno Mars and Miley Cyrus at the 2018 Grammy Awards. Image credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty
The suit was filed on Monday September 16th in Los Angeles, stating: “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’.”
With that said, let’s compare the pair.
Bruno Mars ‘When I Was Your Man’
Miley Cyrus ‘Flowers’
The chorus of ‘When I Was Your Man’:
“I should have bought you flowers, And held your hand / Should have gave you all my hours, When I had the chance / Take you to every party ’cause all you wanted to do was dance / Now my baby’s dancing, But she’s dancing with another man.”
The chorus of ‘Flowers’:
“I can buy myself flowers, Write my name in the sand / Talk to myself for hours, Say things you don’t understand / I can take myself dancing, And I can hold my own hand / Yeah, I can love me better than you can.”
Yeah, look. Temple Music Investments have a point. But I also kinda thought we were all in on this together?
When ‘Flowers’ was first released, we all went crazy. This was the divorce tea we’d been waiting for. Take this from X user, @Spacesmiller.
miley cyrus wrote a song as a response to this bruno mars' song which liam once dedicated to her, and she's releasing it on his birthday 💀 pic.twitter.com/qR5G5gIuaq
— 𝕱 (@spacesmiler) January 10, 2023
It was Liam coded, and it was Miley’s way of telling us “don’t bother dedicating love songs to me, I can do it better”.
The comparisons between the songs – and the lore behind it – were present from the jump and have circled the internet for 18 months now, so it does feel a little strange that only now is a lawsuit being filed. Having said that, I don’t understand a single thing about the legal system so perhaps this has been cooking in the background for a while now.
Miley isn’t the only one named in the lawsuit. As per the documents, ‘Flowers’ co-writers Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack are among the many defendants, including both Apple and Sony Music Publishing. Big yikes.
While the lyrical content is obvious (really, the two songs could be considered a call and response), the lawsuit gets into the nitty gritty, alleging ‘Flowers’ “duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements.” Documents state, “the opening vocal line from the chorus of ‘Flowers’ begins and ends on the same chords as the opening vocal line in the verse of ‘When I Was Your Man’.”
While I don’t understand the legal system (yes, I have learnt nothing further in two paragraphs), I do have a Bachelor of Music, so I feel as though I have some skin in the game discussing this kind of thing. I personally find this “same chords” claim a bit of a stretch given the difference of tempo/genre of the songs (piano ballad vs. upbeat pop banger), but perhaps Temple Music Investments didn’t feel like the lyrics alone were enough to build a case on.
Interestingly, ‘Flowers’ was likened to another, arguably more iconic song when it was released, with instant comparisons to Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’. But the legendary singer wasn’t insulted by the comparisons, in fact, she celebrated them.
Taking to Instagram, Gloria posted a clip of the song and wrote: “I’m in Nashville working on new music and just heard, “Flowers,” for the first time, @MileyCyrus … Your new song carries the torch of empowerment and encourages everyone to find strength in themselves to persevere and thrive. Well done Miley!”
How’s that for a glowing endorsement?
Perhaps all of this mess could have been avoided if Miley and her team officially credited Bruno for interpolating his music, however this concept isn’t as cut and dry as a remix or cover of a song, and the industry is still figuring out how to go about it all.
As per Rolling Stone, “As a musical concept, interpolations are a cousin to sampling, the art of sticking sound snippets of older songs into new projects that has defined so much of hip-hop. Rather than lifting or modifying a recorded track, though, an interpolation cribs only from a song’s written composition — whether that’s lyrics, a melody, a riff, or a beat.”
Brazilian intellectual property attorney/songwriter, Ana Riberio, fears being overly litigious will lead to unnecessary songwriting credits. “The creative process isn’t always a conscious process. When you have an idea, it’s hard to tell if something’s totally original, and it can be hard to tell if any such originality exists,” she told the publication. “The more we widen the idea of what an author or co-author is, the more we risk making a never ending chain of who warrants a credit.”
Artists such as Doja Cat, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo have topped charts with their interpolated tracks, with the latter infamously crediting Taylor Swift retroactively for her track ‘Deja Vu’ after comparisons to Taylor’s ‘Cruel Summer’ became rampant. While Olivia had publicly stated her love and admiration for Taylor, it was perhaps naive to think she could draw inspiration from her idol without feeling the wrath of overprotective Swifties.
Miley’s camp is yet to make a statement on the lawsuit, however sources have told The Daily Mail (so take this with a grain of salt, my friends), that Miley “is not too concerned about the lawsuit itself, but will find it ‘unsettling’ if she is forced to confirm that the song was about her ex.” VIBES MILEY, honestly sue me for all I’m worth before I admit in a court of law literally anything about any ex.
My feminist side hopes Bruno’s team drops the lawsuit (men suing a woman over a song about female empowerment, no thanks!), but the side of me that is desperate for the Liam tea hopes that I’ll have more to report to you all in the months to come.
Stay tuned.
Written by Lil Friedmann who is not legally required to reveal anything about her past romantic dalliances. You can follow her at @lilfriedmann on socials.
Image credit: Getty + Punkee