Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Trial: Singer Fumbles in Court While Trying to Prove Song is Not a Rip-Off

Ed Sheer­an awk­ward­ly tried to play his hit “Think­ing Out Loud” in court to prove he didn’t pla­gia­rize Mar­vin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” But his impromp­tu per­for­mance seemed to hurt more than help his case.

Sheer­an is on tri­al in Man­hat­tan fed­er­al court, fac­ing accu­sa­tions that his 2014 Gram­my-win­ning song “Think­ing Out Loud” ripped off Gaye’s 1973 clas­sic. Sheer­an’s legal team asked him to demon­strate his song­writ­ing process for the jury.

The British pop star brought his gui­tar into the court­room and began strum­ming the famil­iar chords of “Think­ing Out Loud.” But Sheer­an knocked over the micro­phone at one point and admit­ted he’s “not the most tal­ent­ed gui­tarist.” His clum­sy per­for­mance raised more ques­tions than answers about his cre­ative abilities.

Pros­e­cu­tors also con­front­ed Sheer­an with footage of a live show where he mashed up “Think­ing Out Loud” and “Let’s Get It On” — a move that seemed to under­mine his whole argu­ment. Sheer­an claimed he only blend­ed the songs togeth­er because “most pop songs resem­ble each oth­er.” But his weak excuse appeared more like an admis­sion of pla­gia­rism to observers.

Sheer­an argued that melodies just “come nat­u­ral­ly” to him and he can write up to nine songs a day. But his col­lab­o­ra­tor, Amy Wadge, first came up with the chords for “Think­ing Out Loud,” call­ing into ques­tion how much of the song was tru­ly Sheer­an’s work.

The law­suit was filed by Ed Townsend’s daugh­ter, who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On.” She wants a cut of the prof­its from Sheer­an’s hit to “defend her father’s legacy.”

Sheer­an’s cringe­wor­thy court­room per­for­mance and flim­sy expla­na­tions seem poised to hurt his case. His clum­sy attempt to prove his tal­ent and orig­i­nal­i­ty only raised more doubts about whether “Think­ing Out Loud” was brazen­ly ripped off from a Motown clas­sic. Sheer­an may have to cough up a hefty set­tle­ment to make this embar­rass­ing episode go away.

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