Miley Cyrus Sued, Accused of Copying Bruno Mars Song on ‘Flowers’

Miley Cyrus has been hit with a lawsuit alleging she and co-songwriters Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack copied portions of a Bruno Mars single when they wrote her Grammy-winning global hit “Flowers,” according to Rolling Stone.

According to a lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles, Tempo Music Investments claims “Flowers” includes unauthorized “exploitation” of several elements of Mars’ 2013 piano-driven ballad “When I Was Your Man.” The suit also names Sony Music Publishing, Apple, Target, Walmart, and several other companies as defendants accused of distributing “Flowers.” Tempo owns a percentage of the U.S. copyrights to Mars’ song which it acquired from co-writer Philip Lawrence. Mars, along with co-writers Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt, are not named as plaintiffs in the suit.

Although the lyrics to Mars’ song mention flowers, any similarities between the two are not blatantly obvious from casual listens. However, the lawsuit asserts, “Any fan of Bruno Mars’ ‘When I Was Your Man’ knows that Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ did not achieve all of that success on its own. ‘Flowers’ duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements of ‘When I Was Your Man,’ including the melodic pitch design and sequence of the verse, the connecting bass-line, certain bars of the chorus, certain theatrical music elements, lyric elements, and specific chord progressions.

“It is undeniable based on the combination and number of similarities between the two recordings that ‘Flowers’ would not exist without ‘When I Was Your Man,’” the complaint continues. “With ‘Flowers,’ Cyrus, Hein, and Pollack have created a derivative work of ‘When I Was Your Man’ without authorization.”

Reps for Cyrus did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.