Ed Sheeran has “always tried to be completely fair” in crediting people who contribute to his albums, the London High Court has heard in a copyright trial.
Sheeran is in a legal battle with two songwriters, Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue, who allege that his 2017 hit Shape of You rips off parts of their track Oh Why — something he denies.
Shape of You was a worldwide hit, becoming the best-selling song of 2017 in the UK and the most-streamed song in the history of Spotify.
The singer-songwriter began to give evidence on Monday at the start of the second day of the trial, sitting in the witness box in a black suit and tie.
On a small number of occasions, Sheeran would scat or sing a few lines of a song to illustrate a point.
Addressing the court, Sheeran described his songwriting process, denying having premeditated ideas.
The singer told the court: “As I hear a beat, I hear a song and melody comes out.”
He later said: “I write a lot of songs and if I haven’t written a song within two hours, I see it as a failure.”
Explaining his songwriting process, he said in his written evidence: “I frequently write and record a number of songs in a day. I have recently had a session lasting a week in which I wrote 25 songs.”
He said: “I think of them as sort of ‘excitement bottles’ — if a song is working, the excitement pushes it to the point where it’s finished; if it’s not, then I’ll leave it and move on to something else.”
Sheeran later said he had “always tried to be completely fair in crediting anyone who makes any contribution to any song I write”. He said he did refer to other works like “many songwriters”.
“If there is a reference to another work, I notify my team so that steps can be taken to obtain clearance,” he continued.
“I have been as scrupulous as I possibly can and have even given credits to people who I believe may have been no more than a mere influence for a songwriting element.”
Sheeran and his co-authors launched legal proceedings in May 2018, asking the High Court to declare they had not infringed Chokri and O’Donoghue’s copyright.
In July 2018, Chokri and O’Donoghue issued their own claim for “copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement”.
In written evidence, the Thinking Out Loud singer said before the legal case that he was not aware of either Chokri or O’Donoghue, had not heard Oh Why or the EP it was featured on.
Sheeran also said he does not recall meeting Chokri, despite Chokri’s claim that they met at a party in a Nando’s restaurant in central London.
The singer said in his written evidence: “I understand that Mr Chokri says that I met him and spoke to him in 2011 at Jamal Edwards’ launch party for SBTV in London Bridge.
“I remember that party. It was at a branch of Nando’s restaurants… I do not remember meeting Mr Chokri.”
Discussing his use of technology, Sheeran later said he frequently abandoned email accounts to avoid being hacked and his music being leaked.
Previous email addresses used by Sheeran included references to The Simpsons, with his former accounts including everythingscomingupmilhouse@fastmail.com and theblurstoftimes@fastmail.com.
The trial before Mr Justice Zacaroli continues on Tuesday, with judgment expected to be reserved until a later date.
Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
- George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
- Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
- Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
- Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills.
Hunting park to luxury living
- Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
- The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
- Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds
The specs: Rolls-Royce Cullinan
Price, base: Dh1 million (estimate)
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 563hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque: 850Nm @ 1,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 15L / 100km
UAE%20SQUAD
%3Cp%3E%0DJemma%20Eley%2C%20Maria%20Michailidou%2C%20Molly%20Fuller%2C%20Chloe%20Andrews%20(of%20Dubai%20College)%2C%20Eliza%20Petricola%2C%20Holly%20Guerin%2C%20Yasmin%20Craig%2C%20Caitlin%20Gowdy%20(Dubai%20English%20Speaking%20College)%2C%20Claire%20Janssen%2C%20Cristiana%20Morall%20(Jumeirah%20English%20Speaking%20School)%2C%20Tessa%20Mies%20(Jebel%20Ali%20School)%2C%20Mila%20Morgan%20(Cranleigh%20Abu%20Dhabi).%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Strait of Hormuz
Fujairah is a crucial hub for fuel storage and is just outside the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route linking Middle East oil producers to markets in Asia, Europe, North America and beyond.
The strait is 33 km wide at its narrowest point, but the shipping lane is just three km wide in either direction. Almost a fifth of oil consumed across the world passes through the strait.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the strait, a move that would risk inviting geopolitical and economic turmoil.
Last month, Iran issued a new warning that it would block the strait, if it was prevented from using the waterway following a US decision to end exemptions from sanctions for major Iranian oil importers.
RESULTS
Lightweight (female)
Sara El Bakkali bt Anisha Kadka
Bantamweight
Mohammed Adil Al Debi bt Moaz Abdelgawad
Welterweight
Amir Boureslan bt Mahmoud Zanouny
Featherweight
Mohammed Al Katheeri bt Abrorbek Madaminbekov
Super featherweight
Ibrahem Bilal bt Emad Arafa
Middleweight
Ahmed Abdolaziz bt Imad Essassi
Bantamweight (female)
Ilham Bourakkadi bt Milena Martinou
Welterweight
Mohamed Mardi bt Noureddine El Agouti
Middleweight
Nabil Ouach bt Ymad Atrous
Welterweight
Nouredine Samir bt Marlon Ribeiro
Super welterweight
Brad Stanton bt Mohamed El Boukhari
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
