Whoa, Miley Just Got Sued For Allegedly Copying Bruno Mars On 1 Hit Song

Miley Cyrus finally got her flowers when she released her inescapable comeback single in early 2023, but now someone else is plucking at the petals. On Sept. 16, a music company filed a lawsuit against Cyrus, claiming her song “Flowers” was an unauthorized “exploitation” of a Bruno Mars single, per Rolling Stone.

The lawsuit comes from music investment firm Tempo Music, which claims to have recently acquired a portion of the copyright to Mars’ 2012 song “When I Was Your Man.” The suit alleges that Cyrus’ song “duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements” of Mars’ release.

This comparison isn’t exactly new. Fans had already pointed out how Cyrus used the chorus of “Flowers” to put a self-love flip on Mars’ “When I Was Your Man” chorus back when the song was first released.

But according to Tempo Music’s lawsuit, Cyrus’ interpolations of the song were not authorized by the copyright holders of Mars’ single. “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 read, claiming that Cyrus and her fellow songwriters “have created a derivative work of ‘When I Was Your Man’ without authorization.”

“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,” the lawsuit read. The claim points to a number of similarities between the two songs: “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.”

Notably, Mars himself seems to have no involvement in the trial, as his name is left off the plaintiff list.

“Flowers” has been widely considered a massive high point in Cyrus’ music career. Not only did it chart record-breaking streaming numbers, but the single’s success also earned Cyrus her first-ever Grammy award... and her second one, too! Needless to say, it’ll be interesting to see how this unexpected lawsuit plays out.