Taylor Swift sued for allegedly stealing Shake it off Lyrics
US pop star Taylor Swift is
being sued for $42m (£27m) by an R&B singer Jesse Braham for allegedly
stealing the lyrics to her hit 2014 song Shake It Off.
Braham who claimed in legal
papers that Swift stole the words from a song he wrote in 2013 called Haters
Gone Hate insisted that his name should be added as a writer on the track in
addition to the monetary compensation.
Representatives for Swift
have yet to officially comment on the legal case.
Shake It Off topped music
charts around the world and reached number two in the UK. The video for the
song has been watched more than 1.1 billion times on YouTube.
Mr Braham - who goes by the
stage name Jesse Graham - claims he has copyright ownership of the phrases
"haters gone hate" and "playas gone play", which appear in
the chorus of Swift's song.
In Mr Braham's song, the
chorus comprises: "Haters gone hater, playas gone play/ Watch out for them
fakers, they'll fake you every day."
The chorus of Shake It Off
features lyrics including: "Cause the players gonna play, play, play,
play, play/ And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." She sings
another line: "And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake."
Apart from the lyrical
similarity, the songs bear no resemblance musically.
Mr Braham, 50, told the New
York Daily News he believed there was "no way" Swift could have
penned the lyrics independently of his song.
"Her hook is the same
hook as mine. If I didn't write the song Haters Gone Hate, there wouldn't be a
song called Shake It Off," he said.
He added he had spoken to Swift's
record label, Big Machine, four or five times about the issue.
He originally asked to be
named as a writer and requested a selfie with the pop star, but was repeatedly
dismissed and told his claim had no merit.
"At first I was going
to let it go, but this song is my song all the way," he said.
It is the second recent
legal case involving Swift. Earlier this week the singer filed a counterclaim
against a US radio DJ who is suing her over allegations he groped her backstage
at a concert in June 2013.
David Mueller said he was
fired from his job at KYGO in Denver two days later - but claims one of his
superiors committed the alleged assault.
Lawyers for the singer said:
"Ms Swift knows exactly who committed the assault - it was Mueller."
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