Ed Sheeran’s co-writer has had his copyright victory verdict tattooed on her arm: ‘Independently created!’
Ed Sheeran’s co-writer has had his copyright victory verdict tattooed on her arm.
The 32-year-old ‘Shape of You’ singer and his long-time collaborator Amy Wadge, 47, were accused of ripping off Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get it On’ for their hit track ‘Thinking out Loud’, but earlier this month a New York jury cleared them of the accusation.
Revealing how she has had “independently created” inked in a typewriter-style typeface, Amy told BBC Radio Wales: “It’s been eight years of my life that has underpinned my life and it’s been absolutely awful.
“To get to the moment when the jury came in and said we had independently created it... I now have that tattooed on my arm.”
Wales-based Amy spent a month in New York while the court case was being heard, and both she and Ed strongly denied the copyright breach allegation.
Ed had faced a $100 million lawsuit brought by the heirs of the ‘Let’s Get it On’ co-writer, Ed Townsend, but heard the verdict he was in the clear on 4 May after jurors comprised of three men and four women deliberated for less than three hours before reaching the decision.
Ed’s lawyer said the case “should never have been brought”, and the singer said he would be “done” with music if found guilty.
The copyright lawsuit was first brought about in 2018 by the estate of the late Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the 1973 R and B classic with Gaye.
It said Ed and Amy “copied and exploited, without authorisation or credit,” the composition of ‘Let’s Get It On’ by copying various elements, including its “melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping.”
The copyright infringement trial started on 25 April in Manhattan federal court and an attorney for Townsend’s heirs argued in his opening statement that a video of Ed performing a mashup of ‘Thinking out Loud’ and ‘Let’s Get it On’ at one of his concerts in Zurich in 2014, which they called the “smoking gun” for their case.
Ed responded on the stand the same day the video was played: “If I had done what you are accusing me of doing, I would be quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that.”
