Matt Cardle speaks out to distance himself from Ed Sheeran lawsuit after Twitter backlash

Clarification: Matt Cardle has distanced himself from the lawsuit with Ed Sheeran
Neil P. Mockford/Getty Images
Jennifer Ruby9 June 2016
The Weekender

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Matt Cardle has spoken out to distance himself from a lawsuit involving Ed Sheeran after facing a backlash on Twitter.

The former X Factor winner has tweeted to clarify that he is not directly involved with legal proceedings after his songwriters filed a lawsuit suing Sheeran for $20 million this week.

On Thursday afternoon, he tweeted: “Please read news articles closely. This is not my lawsuit. I think @edsheeran is a genius & 100% deserves all his success.”

Cardle faced a barrage of tweets from Sheeran fans after it emerged that songwriters Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard were suing the star after alleging that his 2014 single Photograph is ‘note-for-note’ the same as Cardle’s 2012 song, Amazing.

One person wrote on Twitter: “Pretty sure Ed Sheeran was doing well enough for himself to not even consider copying a Matt Cardle song.”

Another added: “Not being funny but nobody knows who matt cardle is but they're still suing ed? matt cardle is a one hit wonder, yet ed's had loads of hits (sic).”

According to the new lawsuit, Photograph and Amazing share 39 identical notes and the similarities are “beyond substantial”.

The lawsuit states: "The chorus sections of Amazing and the infringing Photograph share 39 identical notes – meaning the notes are identical in pitch, rhythmic duration, and placement in the measure.

"The songs' similarities reach the very essence of the work. The similarities go beyond substantial, which is itself sufficient to establish copyright infringement, and are in fact striking.

"The similarity of words, vocal style, vocal melody, melody, and rhythm are clear indicators, among other things, that Photograph copies Amazing."

A spokesperson for Sheeran told Standard Online: "We do not comment on litigation."

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