CELEBRITIES
Ed Sheeran says he will quit music altogether if convicted of plagiarism
Sheeran claimed the melody of the song ‘Thinking Out Loud’ was 100 percent his own.
Ed Sheeran’s trial for plagiarism is still ongoing. The court has not yet decided whether the singer plagiarized Marvin Gaye’s song ‘Let’s Get It On’ in his single ‘Thinking Out Loud’.
The heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-authored Gaye’s hit song, sued Ed Sheeran for copying Gaye’s tune.
The Townsend heirs are Kathryn Townsend Griffin, Helen McDonald, and Cherrigale Townsend.
What happened in court?
Sheeran was summoned to testify on April 26, and on the stand, he said that the melody of the song was 100 percent his own.
It was the video evidence of Sheeran on stage singing a medley of the two songs that held the most weight in implicating the 32-year-old singer.
While the Townsend attorneys assert the video to be proof of plagiarism, Sheeran’s lawyers argue that it is merely a coincidence between the tonality, structure, and chords of the songs.
Ed Sheeran ready to throw in the towel if things don’t go well
The plagiarism trial has greatly affected Ed Sheeran to the point where the artist is thinking about his retirement from music if the judge rules against him.
“If that happens, I’m done, I stop,” Sheeran told his lawyer, Ilene Farkas. “I find it really insulting to dedicate my whole life to being a performer and songwriter and for someone to diminish that.”
Further, the British-born singer says he’s in the habit of merging his songs with similar-sounding tracks, and that’s what happened that day.
Ed claims he’s “not stupid” and that if it was plagiarism, he wouldn’t have performed the two songs together.
“I would have been an idiot to stand on stage in front of 20 thousand people,” the singer said.