Ed Sheeran accused of stealing artists music as royalties are blocked

Ed Sheeran has been hit with fresh claims of copying music (Picture: Didier Messens/Redferns)

Ed Sheeran is not currently receiving any royalties for his hit Shape Of You, after being accused of ‘appropriating’ other people’s music.

The 28-year-old has been hit with fresh allegations which accusing him of being ‘consciously or subconsciously in the habit of appropriating the compositional skill and labour of other songwriters’.

Documents lodged at the High Court cite claims from musician Sam Chokri, who is fighting Sheeran in court over allegations that the songwriter copied the chorus for Shape Of You from Chokri’s 2015 song Oh Why.

Chokri, 26, alleges that he sent the track to Sheeran’s ‘circle’ in an attempt to work with the megastar, but claims he later heard it on Shape Of You – which was the biggest selling single of 2017 in the UK and has generated an estimated £20 million in revenues.

In his claim, Chokri also alleges that Ed has used material from other artists in his music, including TLC, Jasmine Rae and Shaggy.

He claims that Sheeran was forced to include Shaggy in the writing credits of Liam Payne’s song Strip That Down, which he co-wrote, for using part of the melody from It Wasn’t Me, as well as giving Kandi Burress, Tamkea Cottle and Kevin ‘She’kspere’ Briggs credits due to similarities to No Scrubs.

These allegations come after Sheeran launched his own claim against Chokri after the little-known musician won a ruling from the Performing Rights Society after he set out a case for copyright infringement.

Royalties for Shape Of You have been suspended pending a court decision.

Ed has denied the allegations (Picture: Keith Mayhew / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

Sheeran – who recently released his new album No 6 Collaborations Project – alleges that Chokri damaged his reputation and blocked his revenue streams, and denies the allegations against him.

These new claims come after Wiley called out Ed – who is worth £160 million – as a ‘culture vulture’.

The Godfather of Grime tweeted: ‘Ed knows this when I hear him on grime in 2019 I will have loads to say he already knew which means he knew what he was doing but #Dead Cos you don’t care about grime #Folk you breaded stormzy.’

The A Team singer has been accused on numerous occasions of copyright infringement – and is currently embroiled in litigation over claims he lifted ‘major harmonic progressions and rhythmic elements’ from Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On for his 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud.

That case has been postponed until 2020.

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