EXCLUSIVE Ed Sheeran reflects on $100M copyright trial as he performs 'emotional' new single inspired by the case for the first time during surprise appearance at Radio 1's Big Weekend

Daily Mail​

24-05-2025

Ed Sheeran made a surprise appearance at Radio 1's Big Weekend on Saturday, where he performed a new song inspired by his $100 million copyright trial.
The singer, 34, wrote the track after revisiting an old phone during the lawsuit over his hit 'Thinking Out Loud.'
He had been accused of copying Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On but was cleared in court in 2023.
Now, taking to the stage at the Liverpool-based festival, Ed opened up about the inspiration behind his new song Old Phone before performing it for the first time in front of a crowd.
Referring to his copyright trail, told the crowd: 'The judge ordered me to give up my old devices to the other lawyers for them to go through all my text messages and emails and photos and stuff like that.
'And in that process I switched on a phone that I had not looked at in 10 years and it was like looking into the past and it was conversations with people who had passed away.
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He continued: 'There was arguments with an ex-girlfriend, there was, you know, text messages and pictures from people that I haven't seen or spoken to in, in 10 years, and I wrote this song about it called Old phone.'
Ed's performance was announced just moments before he surprised the crowd with his unexpected appearance.
He told fans he chose to perform on the New Music Stage because it was the only one he hadn't sung on yet.
A source at Big Weekend told MailOnline: 'Ed came on as a surprise guest kicking off the opening act on Saturday lunchtime, I've never seen festival goers swarm a stage so quickly.
'He played a number of his hits and also included some of his new songs which the crowd the loved.
'Ed explained the meaning behind his one new song where he opened up about his court case and how finding old phone was the inspiration.
'As he started Azizam he did mess up his famous loop but he started again and told the crowd 'that's how you know I'm playing live'.
'He was on for an hour and nearly ran over time but the crowd didn't want it to end.'
During his set in Liverpool, Ed also performed fan favourites including Castle on the Hill, Shivers, The A-Team, and Photograph.
He went on to perform his hit Shape of You before closing the epic, surprise show with Bad Habits.
It comes after Ed broke down in tears in March 2023 after a jury found his hit song Thinking Out Loud did not copy Marvin Gaye's classic 'Let's Get It On'.
As the jury at Manhattan federal court cleared Ed of infringing copyright, he briefly put his hands over his face in relief before standing and hugging his lawyer.
His co-writer Amy Wadge said she and Ed 'had a few tears' of relief after winning the $100million case.
Speaking outside the court, he said: 'I'm just a guy with a guitar who loves writing music for people to enjoy. I am not and will not allow myself to be a piggy bank.'
Ed vehemently denied allegations that his song stole fundamental musical elements from Marvin's song.
The singer had staked his whole career on the case, vowing that he would be 'done' with music if found guilty.
Ed added: 'I'm obviously very happy with the outcome of the case and it looks like I'm not having to retire from my day job after all.
'At the same time I'm unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all.
'We've spent the last eight years talking about two songs with dramatically different lyrics, melodies and four chords which are also different and used by songwriters every day all over the world.
'These chords are common building blocks which were used to create music long before Let's Get It On was written and will be used to create music long after we are all gone.
'They are in a songwriter's alphabet, our toolkit, and should be there for all of us to use.
'No one owns them or the way they are played, in the same way that no one owns the color blue.'
He added that if the verdict had gone the other way 'we might as well say goodbye to the creative freedom of songwriters' and that artists need to be able to create original music 'without worrying at every step on the way that said creativity will be wrongly called into question'.
'It is devastating to be accused of stealing someone else's song when we put so much work into our livelihoods,' he added.
The singer also said he missed his grandmother's funeral in Ireland because of the trial, and that he 'won't get that time back'.
ED SHEERAN: SHAPE OF YOU
Sheeran's victory in Manhattan Thursday was his second such case in two years, after he also won a plagiarism battle over his 2017 hit Shape Of You.
A judge in the UK High Court ruled that Sheeran had not copied the 2015 song Oh Why by Sami Chokri.
The grime artist, who performs under the name Sami Switch, had claimed the 'Oh I' hook in Shape Of You was 'strikingly similar' to an 'Oh why' refrain on his track.
Sheeran said after the ruling that such 'baseless' claims were 'way too common'.
Judge Antony Zacaroli ruled that Sheeran had 'neither deliberately nor subconsciously copied' Chokri's song.
He recognised 'similarities between the one-bar phrase' in Shape of You and Oh Why, but said 'such similarities are only a starting point for a possible infringement' of copyright.
He added that there were 'differences between the relevant parts' of the songs, which 'provide compelling evidence that the 'Oh I' phrase' in Sheeran's song 'originated from sources other than Oh Why'.
During the case, Sheeran appeared stung by the accusation that he had stolen another artist's work without giving them due credit.
Chokri and his co-write Ross O'Donoghue were ordered to pay Sheeran $1.1million in legal fees after the case.
ED SHEERAN: PHOTOGRAPH
Sheeran also faced a copyright suit over his hit song Photograph after he was accused of 'note-for-note copying' the track 'Amazing', recorded by British X Factor winner Matt Cardle.
The case was reportedly settled out of court after the song's writers had filed a lawsuit in 2016 seeking $20million.
Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard's complaint said Sheeran and his writing partner 'copied and exploited... the work of other active, professional songwriters, on a breathtaking scale, unabashedly taking credit for the work of these songwriters...'
The lawsuit alleged that the chorus of 'Photograph' and Cardle's 'Amazing' share 39 identical notes.
ROBIN THICKE: BLURRED LINES
Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were ordered to pay the family of Marvin Gaye $5million after they were found to have copied one of his hits.
The duo were found to have copied Gaye's 1977 hit Got to Give It Up for their track Blurred Lines.
Gaye's family initially won the case in 2015, which was upheld by a California court on appeal in 2018.
The family were also awarded 50 percent of all future royalties earned by Blurred Lines.
But the $5million payout was a fraction of the $16.6m Williams and Thicke were revealed to have made from the song during the initial trial.
Some within the music industry slammed the initial verdict for punishing Thicke's song over copying the 'feel' of Gaye's classic - rather than directly plagiarizing musical phrases or lyrics.
The appeal court also split on this, and one of the three judges dissented from the ruling.
Circuit Judge Jacqueline Nguyen said the two songs 'differed in melody, harmony and rhythm' and wrote that the verdict 'strikes a devastating blow to future musicians and composers everywhere'.
The verdict sparked a number of similar cases against artists including Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, Madonna and Miley Cyrus.
LED ZEPPELIN STAIRWAY: TO HEAVEN
Rock legends Led Zeppelin won a six-year legal tussle to prove they had not copied a song by Randy California for their iconic track 'Stairway to Heaven'.
The estate of the late California filed a lawsuit in 2014 alleging that the Zeppelin song had been nicked from the single 'Taurus' by the 1960s band Spirit, for whom California had been the lead guitarist.
In 2020, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict that found the song had not been copied.
Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant told the BBC in 2021: 'There are zillions and zillions of songs that are carrying the same chord progression, so it was very unfortunate, and it was unpleasant for everybody.'
GEORGE HARRISON: MY SWEET LORD
Former Beatle George Harrison was found guilty of 'subconsciously' plagiarizing the 1962 John Mack tune 'He's So Fine' for his 1970 hit 'My Sweet Lord'.
The 1976 case saw Judge Richard Owen of the US District Court in Manhattan find Harrison guilty of copyright infringement but 'not deliberately'.
Owen, himself a composer, said: 'It is clear that My Sweet Lord is the very same song as 'He's So Fine.' This is, under the law infringement of copyright and is no less so even though subconsciously accomplished.'
Owen said it was apparent from the trial evidence that Harrison had not been conscious of the fact that he was plagiarizing the theme of 'He's So Fine'.
But he added: 'In seeking musical materials to clothe his thought...there came to the surface of his mind a particular combination that pleased him as being one he felt would be appealing to a prospective listener...[Mr. Harrison's subconscious mind] knew this combination of sounds would work because it already had worked in a song his conscious mind did not remember.'