Miley Cyrus performs onstage during the 66th Grammy Awards. Kevin Winter/Getty Images
A company that holds part of the copyright to Bruno Mars’ song "When I Was Your Man" is claiming that Miley Cyrus’ hit "Flowers" closely resembles the Mars track.
Tempo Music Investments, which acquired a share of the copyright from songwriter Philip Lawrence in 2020, has filed a lawsuit in California federal court. The company accuses Cyrus of copying Mars' song, asserting that the similarities are more than just coincidental.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday, also names songwriters Gregory Hein and Michael Pollock, as well as Sony Music Publishing and various distributors including Apple, Live Nation, and Amazon. Bruno Mars himself is not involved in the case.
“Flowers,” which was released after Cyrus’ divorce from Liam Hemsworth, quickly became a sensation. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for eight weeks after its January 2023 debut and won Cyrus her first Grammy a year later.
Listeners have noted that “Flowers” seems to echo Mars’ 2013 hit, with many seeing it as an interpolation of “When I Was Your Man.” Tempo Music’s lawsuit claims that “Flowers” is an unauthorized derivative of the Mars track, highlighting notable similarities in melody, harmony, and chorus.
The complaint points out that the opening line of "Flowers" mirrors the chords of the opening verse in “When I Was Your Man.” It also includes a side-by-side comparison of the lyrics, such as Mars’ line “That I should have brought you flowers and held your hand” versus Cyrus’ “I can buy myself flowers and I can hold my own hand.”
Alex Weingarten, the company’s lawyer, argues that the lyrical and musical parallels indicate that the similarities are deliberate, not accidental.
In response, Cyrus might argue that her song falls under fair use, which allows for the use of copyrighted material to create new, transformative works.
