Ed Sheeran’s song-theft accuser takes to the stand

Naman Ramachandran Concert for Ukraine, the fundraising event for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal on Tuesday, saw £13.4 million ($17.6 million) raised from sponsorship, ad revenue, ticket sales and public donations. The two-hour event, which was live from the Resorts World Arena Birmingham, and broadcast exclusively on ITV and STV, featured performances from Anne-Marie, Becky Hill, Camila Cabello, Nile Rogers & Chic, Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sandé, Gregory Porter, Jamala, The Kingdom Choir, Manic Street Preachers, Nicola Benedetti, Snow Patrol and Tom Odell.A highpoint of the evening was a violin performance, which saw the recent viral video of young violinist Illia Bondarenko playing the Ukrainian folk song “Verbovaya Doschechka” from a basement shelter along with 94 violinists from around the world, joined up with a live performance in the room by Nicola Benedetti.

64th Annual GRAMMY Awards are Sunday, and that means it's time to honor the best of the past year in music!This year, nominees for the Big Four awards — Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Best New Artist — include everyone from ABBA to Saweetie, but the night might be Olivia Rodrigo's to lose.

Janette Manrara has spoken out on her husband Aljaz Skorjanec's Strictly Come Dancing exit after he announced he was quitting the show after nine years. The professional dancer, who joined the show as a professional dancer back in 2013, revealed his news on Monday morning (March 28) with an emotional statement on social media.

Judi Dench is at the Oscars with her grandson Sam Williams, who fans think is a celebrity lookalike!

J Balvin and Ed Sheeran may not seem a likely pairing on paper but ̶m̶o̶n̶t̶h̶l̶y̶ ̶l̶i̶s̶t̶e̶n̶e̶r̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶u̶r̶e̶s̶ musical connections are hard to deny. Today the pair are sharing two songs, billed as an EP, one of which leans into Balvin's comfort zone of party starting reggaeton ("Sigue") and another more in Sheeran's earnest balladeering wheelhouse.

The ‘Shape Of You’ song-theft court case has now concluded with judge Antony Zacaroli busy considering whether or not Ed Sheeran is indeed a musical magpie and squirrel, who likes lifting elements of other people’s songs when making his music. Or, at least, who lifted a key line from the 2015 track ‘Oh Why’ when he wrote his 2017 hit ‘Shape Of You’.Sami Chokri reckons that Sheeran got a copy of his track ‘Oh Why’ through mutual friends or industry connections and then, when the star and his songwriting pals got together in late 2016 to write ‘Shape Of You’, he either consciously or subconsciously utilised a key element of the earlier song within his hit.But Sheeran and his collaborators deny having ever heard ‘Oh Why’ before writing ‘Shape Of You’.

Summing up has begun in the big old ‘Shape Of You’ song-theft case, with Ed Sheeran’s lawyer declaring that the legal dispute has been “deeply traumatising” for his client, and should never have got as far as the High Court.Sami Chokri reckons that Sheeran got a copy of his 2015 track ‘Oh Why’ through mutual friends or industry connections and then, when the star and his songwriting pals got together in late 2016 to write ‘Shape Of You’, he either consciously or subconsciously utilised a key element of the earlier song within his hit.But Sheeran and his collaborators deny having ever heard ‘Oh Why’ before writing ‘Shape Of You’.

The ongoing song theft dispute in London’s high court over Ed Sheeran’s hit ‘Shape Of You’ got to the musicologist stage this week. Both sides in the dispute had expert musicologists analyse the similarities between Sheeran’s song and Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue’s earlier track ‘Oh Why’.

Ed Sheeran, Calvin Harris, Aitch, AJ Tracey, Anne Marie, Central Cee, Joel Corry and Yungblud are all set to perform on the main stage on Saturday, May 28 in Coventry.The BBC Music Introducing Stage will welcome Artemas, Celina Sharma, Deyah, Jordan MacKampa, Tamera, Thomas Headon, USNA and Willow Kayne on Saturday and Alfie Indra, Crawlers, Danniella Dee, Hope Tala, Lizzie Esau, Piri & Tommy, Queen Millz and Sad Night Dynamite on Sunday (May 29).It was announced last November last year that Radio 1’s Big Weekend would return in 2022 from May 27-29 after a two-year break. The annual event was held virtually in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-enforced restrictions.The 2019 edition of Big Weekend took place in Middlesbrough, with performances coming from Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus, The 1975, Foals, Vampire Weekend and more.Some #BigWeekend line-up news! Performing on the Main Stage on Saturday 28th May:✨ @CalvinHarris✨ @EdSheeran✨ @OfficialAitch✨ @ajtracey✨ @AnneMarie✨ Central Cee✨ @JoelCorry✨ @Yungblud Everything you need to know about this year’s event: https://t.co/GNEZRXbbVS pic.twitter.com/uswiaDjRkJ— BBC Radio 1 (@BBCR1) March 14, 2022Both Ed Sheeran and Anne Marie have told Radio 1 they “can’t wait” to perform at the festival (via BBC), with Sheeran adding: “See you all there!”More names will be revealed in due course, along with the main stage acts for the Sunday edition.There are 8,000 tickets available to purchase for Friday and 39,500 tickets available to purchase, per day for Saturday and Sunday.

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including Ed Sheeran’s trip to the High Court in London in a bid to defeat a song-theft lawsuit filed against him and his musical collaborators in relation to his 2017 track ‘Shape Of You’, and the return of LimeWire – not as a piece of peer-to-peer file-sharing software, but as a music NFT marketplace.

Another co-writer of the Ed Sheeran hit ‘Shape Of You’ took to the witness stand in the high court in London yesterday as the song-theft case against Sheeran and his musical collaborators continues. Producer Steve Mac – real name Steven McCutcheon – said the writing of ‘Shape Of You’ was very rapid and very collaborative.Sheeran and his songwriting collaborators – including McCutcheon – are accused of ripping off the earlier track ‘Oh Why’ by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue when they wrote their 2017 hit.

Courteney Cox, Ed Sheeran, Elton John and Brandi Carlile delighted fans last year when they teamed up for a surprise cover.

World renowned singer Ed Sheeran has been relying on the support of his wife Cherry Seaborn amid his "disturbing and stressful" court case, which has seen him accused of copying music from other artists, a source has revealed. Ross O' Donoghue and Sami Chokri (who goes by the grime artist name Sami Switch) have alleged that Ed's 2017 'Shape of You' from his bestselling album ÷ ("Divide") used snippets from their own song 'Oh Why', and filed an official legal complaint back in 2018.

Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid took to the stand in London’s high court yesterday in the ongoing song-theft legal battle over Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape Of You’, which he co-wrote. He mainly echoed comments already made by his musical collaborator earlier in the week, while also talking about the “culture” of dubious copyright claims in the US courts that followed the 2015 ‘Blurred Lines’ ruling, and insisting that the thought of plagiarising another artist’s work was “abhorrent”.Sheeran and his songwriting collaborators – including McDaid – are accused of ripping off the earlier track ‘Oh Why’ by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue when they wrote their 2017 hit.

Ed Sheeran was left looking confused in court after a brand new song was played by mistake during his “Shape of You” trial. The singer-songwriter was “disconcerted” after an error resulted in the never-before-heard track being heard by those present in the High Court on Tuesday (8 March). Sheeran, looking at his lawyers, said: “That’s a song I wrote last January.

Ed Sheeran further discussed his creative process in the high court in London yesterday as the song-theft legal battle over his 2017 hit ‘Shape Of You’ continued. He also revealed how his team usually deal with songs he’s written that contain elements in common with old songs – a process that may or may not have been applied to the unreleased Sheeran track that got an unintended airing as yesterday’s court proceedings went through the motions.Sheeran and his songwriting collaborators are accused of ripping off the earlier track ‘Oh Why’ by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue when they wrote their 2017 hit.

Ed Sheeran said in the high court yesterday that – while he is influenced by other songs when writing his own music – he is not a “magpie” that routinely lifts elements of those existing songs without permission. And where one of his songs does arguably share a musical element with an existing work, he goes out of his way to clear and credit the original.Meanwhile, he settled an earlier song-theft lawsuit over his song ‘Photograph’ out of court not because he thought he was liable for copyright infringement, but because he was advised it was the easiest way to move beyond that particular dispute.All of this was said as the musician gave testimony as part of the song-theft legal battle in the UK courts over his song ‘Shape Of You’.