Taylor Swift Sued for Stealing Lyrics for 'Shake It Off' Hit
Looks like one Taylor Swift hater is going to hate, hate, hate... and sue.
The 26-year-old pop star is in hot water after an American RnB singer alleged her for stealing some lines that she used in her 2014 hit song "Shake It Off," making her face a lawsuit that could amount to $42 million.
According to BBC News, RnB artist Jesse Graham filed the copyright infringement charge over the Grammy award winning singer after she allegedly ripped some key phrases in Graham's 2013 song, "Haters Gonna Hate."
The RnB singer claimed that he has ownership over phrases like "haters gonna hate" and "playas gonna play" and said that Swift's chorus lyrics of "Shake It Off" is a rip off. Apart from the alleged plagiarized lyrics, there were no other resemblances cited between the two songs.
In Swift's 2014 hit, the lines in question were "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/ And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate/And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake" while Graham's lyrics went "Haters gone hater, playas gone play/ Watch out for them fakers, they'll fake you every day."
"Her hook is the same hook as mine," Graham told New York Daily News as he stressed that Swift has also used the key phrases for about 72 times. "If I didn't write the song 'Haters Gone Hate,' there wouldn't be a song called 'Shake It Off.'"
Graham also added that there is "no way" that Swift had written her 2014 hit without resembling it to his song.
Also, it was reported that Graham noticed Swift's use of his lyrics months ago during a performance in "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and immediately contacted Sony and Big Machine, Swift's record label. Since then, the RnB artist has spoken to the music managements four or five times.
New York Daily News further reports that the copyright infringement charge came after Swift declined Graham's request for a selfie. Initially, Graham was reported to have offered a settlement for Swift and her camp by just including his name as one of the song's writer and, humble enough, a selfie with the highest paid musician in the world.
However, Swift's camp has declined Graham's amicable offering as they argued that he should not be credited since "his claim of ownership had no merit." Swift's denial then prompted the RnB singer to file charges.
"At first I was going to let it go, but this song is my song all the way," he said.
Swift's "Shake It Off" was a music chart topper around the world in 2014 and even hit second top spot in the United Kingdom. Since its release, "Shake It Off's" music video has been watched more than 1.1 billion times in YouTube alone.
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