British popular prima Olivia Dean has been accused of copying the melody of Bill Withers' psyche classical Just The Two of Us successful a ineligible lawsuit filed successful California.
The ailment centres astir Dean's opus I've Seen It, taken from her Brit Award-winning 2025 medium The Art of Loving.
Just The Two of Us was a deed for Withers successful 1981, and the publishers of the precocious singer's catalogue allege that the 2 songs "share philharmonic features" that are "so striking" they cannot person arisen by coincidence alone.
The suit names Dean's grounds statement Capitol Records, genitor institution Universal Music Group and her publishing companies arsenic the defendants. It does not question damages from the vocalist herself oregon her co-writers Bastian Langebæk and Max Wolfgang.
In ineligible documents seen by the BBC, Mattie Music Group, which looks aft Withers' backmost catalogue, said it hired a musicologist to reappraisal the 2 songs.
He concluded "that the works incorporate important similarities" including the "repeated copying" of the melody from Just The Two of Us, the documents said.
The publishers assertion they notified Dean's grounds statement of the imaginable infringement successful August, but the euphony was not pulled from distribution.
To beryllium plagiarism, Mattie Music Group would person to beryllium that Dean and her co-writers had antecedently heard Withers' archetypal composition.
In the lawsuit, they allege that his song's "extraordinary and sustained" commercialized success, including "decades of vigor play", would mean the musicians had "reasonable opportunity" to person encountered Just The Two of Us earlier penning I've Seen It.
The defendants person yet to respond to the lawsuit. The BBC has contacted them, and Dean's representatives, for a comment.
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