Taylor Swift sued for $42m over alleged plagiarism of lyrics
Musician Taylor Swift is facing a $42m lawsuit after being sued by an unknown American R&B singer for allegedly stealing a portion of the chorus in her hit ‘Shake It Off’ from one of his songs.
Jesse Braham claims that the lyrics ‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/ And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate” followed by “shake it off” plus “And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake,” were ripped directly from his 2013 work, Haters Gone Hate.
Justifying his legal action Braham claims to own copyright to the phrases haters gone hate’ and playas gone play’ which appear in the chorus of his own chorus as “Haters gone hater, playas gone play/ Watch out for them fakers, they’ll fake you everyday.”
Braham initially sought a selfie with the artist as well as being credited as a writer of the track before being rebuffed by her label, Big Machine.
‘Shake It Off’ is Taylor Swift’s breakout hit, racking up more than a 1bn views on YouTube and cementing her migration from a country singer to mainstream pop.