Miley Cyrus has been sued over her hit song, “Flowers.” The singer is accused of copying Bruno Mars’ 2013 track “When I Was Your Man,” according to a lawsuit obtained by TheWrap.
The suit, which was filed on Monday in California’s Central District Court by Tempo Music Investments, alleges that her song includes unauthorized “exploitation” of musical components from Mars’ track that she ripped off with songwriters Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack.
Tempo states that it owns some of “When I Was Your Man” through an agreement with the song’s co-writer Philip Lawrence. Other defendants listed include Sony Music Publishing, Tidal Music, Walmart and Disney, among other distributers. In addition to Lawrence, the song was also written by Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt, though they and Mars are not named in the document.
Specifically, the lawsuit states “Flowers” duplicates “the basic melodic and harmonic design of E-D-C-E-F at the end of Unit 1 in ‘When I Was Your Man.’”
“Any fan of Bruno Mars’ ‘When I Was Your Man’ knows that Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ did not achieve all of that success on its own,” per the docs. “‘Flowers’ duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic and lyrical elements of ‘When I Was Your Man,’ including the melodic pitch design and sequence of the verse, the connecting bass-line, certain bars of the chorus, certain theatrical music elements, lyric elements and specific chord progressions.”
“Additionally, as shown below, melodic Unit 2 of the chorus of ‘Flowers’ is significant in that it duplicates the development process of the music in Unit 2 in the verse of ‘When I Was Your Man.’ Each unit begins with a G major chord and ends the melody on a C major chord. The overall melodic design in both songs begins after a rest on the downbeat, repeats the pitch D, and moves to pitch E … The line repeats the pitch D, descends through C to the lowest pitch A, then leaps up ending with the pitches D to E against the C major chord. It is notable that the pitch D is a dissonant non-chord tone that resolves upward to the E. This distinctive melodic element is duplicated in ‘Flowers’ and represents a kind of musical fingerprint.”
The lawsuit goes on to say that the similarities between the two songs are “undeniable,” noting, “Based on the combination and number of similarities between the two recordings, ‘Flowers’ would not exist without ‘When I Was Your Man. With ‘Flowers,’ Cyrus, Hein and Pollack have created a derivative work of ‘When I Was Your Man’ without authorization.”
Cyrus’ team did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
The lawsuit would like the amount of damages to be determined at the end of a potential trail, or they’d like to receive $150,000 per infringement.
“Flowers” earned Cyrus her very first Grammy when she won for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2024 awards show.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.
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