Ed Sheeran celebrated his win in a copyright trial by putting on an impromptu street concert in New York City.
The 32-year-old singer-songwriter previously threatened that he was “done” with his career if he lost the lawsuit, in which the estate of Marvin Gaye accused him of copying the 1973 hit “Let’s Get It On” when he composed the Grammy Award-winning single, “Thinking Out Loud.”
But Sheeran won, prompting him to hop onto a car in SoHo and play six songs on his guitar as screaming fans cheered him on, per Page Six. The musician serenaded the crowd with major hits, including “Thinking Out Loud,” the song at the center of the lawsuit.
bruh i was walking thru nyc and randomly found ed sheeran performing on top of a car wtf? lmao pic.twitter.com/62BlSOMrZo
— nxo.eth is king bozo (@NFTnxo) May 5, 2023
Gaye’s estate, represented by attorney Ben Crump, insisted that Sheeran copied the “melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping” of “Let’s Get It On.” It sued for $100 million.
Sheeran countered that the chord progression in question, 1-3-4-5, is common in pop songs. The musician played several songs from the stand which all featured the same chords.
The British musician expressed frustration with the lawsuit and trial, saying, “I find it really insulting to work my whole life as a singer-songwriter and diminish it.” He also said he missed his late grandmother’s funeral to appear in court.
“We’ve spent the last eight years talking about two songs with dramatically different lyrics, melodies and four chords, which are also different and are used by songwriters every day, all over the world,” Sheeran said in a video posted on Instagram. “They are in a songwriter’s alphabet, our toolkit, and should be there for all of us to use. No one owns them or the way they’re played in the same way no one owns the color blue.”
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He continued: “I’m just a guy with a guitar who loves writing music for people to enjoy. I am not and will never allow myself to be a piggy bank for someone to shake. Having to be in New York for this trial has meant that I’ve missed being with my family at my grandmother’s funeral in Ireland and I will never get that time back.”