By Mark Savage
Music experts have given contrasting views over whether Ed Sheeran copied the work of another singer when he wrote his 2017 single Shape Of You.
The star denies stealing the chorus of Sami Switchโs Oh Why for the โoh I, oh I, oh Iโ hook of his hit song.
Forensic musicologists were called by both sides to argue the case at Londonโs High Court.
One said the songs were โdistinctly differentโ but the other argued they contained โsignificant similaritiesโ.
Shape Of You was the worldโs best-selling song of 2017, with more than three billion plays on Spotify alone.
The track earns Sheeran and his co-writers Steven McCutcheon and Johnny McDaid about ยฃ5m a year, despite almost 10% of the payments being frozen due to the ongoing copyright dispute, the court heard.
โEntirely commonplaceโ
Wednesdayโs testimony came from copyright consultant Christian Siddell and Anthony Ricigliano, a former head of music theory at the Manhattan School of Music, who previously helped Led Zeppelin win a plagiarism trial over Stairway To Heaven.
In a joint written statement, they agreed that โwhen heard in the context of their respective works, the words โOh whyโ and โOh Iโ may be phonetically indistinguishable from each other to the casual listenerโ.
They also agreed that neither of them had found โthe same combinationโ of phonetic sounds, pitch and rhythm โin any other compositionsโ.
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However, they differed on whether Sheeran had copied his song from Sami Switch, whose real name is Sami Chokri, and his co-writer Ross OโDonoghue.
Mr Ricigliano, who has instructed Sheeranโs lawyers but told the court he was โcompletely impartialโ, said that he considered the extent of the alleged similarities to be โoverstatedโ.
He wrote that โthe overall design and musical development of the melodic, harmonic and lyrical content in the relevant phrase in Shape Of You are distinctively different from that utilized in Oh Whyโ.
Calling the similarities โcoincidentalโ, he added that it was โobjectively unlikelyโ that any overlap came as a โresult from copyingโ.
In his written evidence, Sheeran noted that his songโs โOh Iโ melody is based on โa basic minor pentatonic patternโ which is โentirely commonplaceโ.
Mr Ricigliano agreed, paraphrasing a quote from West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein: โThe pentatonic scale is humanityโs favorite scale and is so well known that one can find examples of it from all corners of the Earthโ.
In court, Andrew Sutcliffe QC, representing Mr Chokri and Mr OโDonoghue, asked him: โYou accept, donโt you Mr. Ricigliano, that despite all your research you have not found any examples in any corner of the earth over the past 200 years, which sound phonetically the same as the chorus in Oh Why and the post-chorus in Shape Of You?โ
โThatโs correct,โ Mr Ricigliano said.
โDo you not find this extraordinary?โ Mr Sutcliffe asked, with the expert replying: โNoโ.
Mr Siddell, who was instructed by Mr Chokriโs lawyers, disagreed, saying the similarities between the two songs were โso numerous and striking that the possibility of independent creation isโฆ highly improbableโ.
He said the two melodies were โnearly identical in respect of their rhythm and pitchโ, the phonetic sounds of the vocal lines were โmusically indistinguishable to the earโ and other compositional similarities included the use of โphrase repetitionโ and โthe musical dynamicsโ.
The crossover was โunlikely to be the consequence of coincidenceโ, he added.
โHad I been consulted in a โcopyright complianceโ capacity as to whether a license should be sought from the writers of Oh Why, my guidance would have been, in summary, that either the melodic phrase should be omitted and replaced with original new material or a license should be obtained?โ
Sheeran and his co-writers deny copying Mr Chokriโs song, stating they had not heard it before the copyright claim was raised.