Benny Blanco, Halsey, Khalid and Ed Sheeran are being sued for copyright infringement over ‘Eastside’.
Songwriters Konstantine Lois and Shane Williams have filed a lawsuit against everyone involved in Benny’s 2018 hit, including the featured artists, Halsey and Khalid, co-writer, Ed, and record labels who distributed the song.
In court documents obtained by TMZ, the pair claimed that ‘Eastside’ is a direct copy of their 2015 song ‘Loveless’ for Shane’s group American XO.
The news outlet notes that Konstantine and Shane found similar “note dyads, note intervals, similar tempos and an all-around familiar beat” when comparing the tracks.
They also claimed to have an idea of how Benny may have come to lift their song, as he previously revealed in an interview that he listens to a number of new artists every day to seek inspiration.
It’s not the first time Ed has been caught up in a copyright scandal.
In 2018, the Grammy-winner was sued by Structured Assets Sales (SAS) for $100 million, when his hit ‘Thinking Out Loud’ was accused of having the same “melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping” to Marvin Gaye’s famous beat on ‘Let’s Get It On’.
And, two years earlier, Ed was accused of copying the iconic single by the heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the song with Marvin – both of whom are now dead – and claimed the two tracks were “strikingly similar”.
The lawsuit stated: “The defendants copied the ‘heart’ of ‘Let’s’ and repeated it continuously throughout ‘Thinking’.
“The melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic compositions of ‘Thinking’ are substantially and/or strikingly similar to the drum composition of ‘Let’s’.”
At the time, Ed denied the allegations and no further action was taken.