John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Miley Cyrus has been sued by a company that claims her 2023 song "Flowers" intentionally copied Bruno Mars' "When I Was Your Man," which was released in 2012.
TMZ reported on Monday that Tempo Music Investments, which claims to hold a share of the copyright to Mars' song, filed the lawsuit. Mars is not listed as a plaintiff.
The company alleges that Cyrus "intentionally" copied Mars' work, claiming that "Flowers" features a similar melody, harmony, and chord progressions to the 2012 song.
In the suit, Tempo Music Investments said: "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 company is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages and wants Cyrus barred from performing "Flowers" and distributing the song in the future.
Cyrus has not publicly commented on the lawsuit, and she and Mars' representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
In March 2018, Jamaican artist Michael May, who goes by Flourgon, alleged that Cyrus' 2013 song "We Can't Stop" used similar lyrics to his 1988 track, "We Run Things."
In court documents, he claimed the song "misappropriated" his "musical composition/lyrical phrase" and sought $300 million in damages. The pair settled out of court in 2020, Variety reported.
Six months later, in September 2018, Ariella Asher, also known as Yella the Triple Threat, filed a suit against Cyrus and Universal Music. She claimed that Mike Will Made It's 2013 song "23" — which features Cyrus — had an "infringing composition" on her 2012 song "J's On My Feet," per court documents.
The suit was dropped in November 2018, The Blast reported.
Cyrus faced another lawsuit in September 2022 after she shared a photo of herself waving to fans on Instagram. Robert Barbera, the photographer, said she shouldn't have posted the image because she didn't own the rights.
The incident sparked a debate over whether a person has rights to their likeness in images they don't own.
In court documents, Barbera claimed that by posting the photo to her millions of Instagram followers, Cyrus had "crippled if not destroyed the potentiality of any market for the Photograph by Plaintiff."
One month later, in October 2022, Billboard reported that Cyrus had settled with Barbera and that the suit had been dismissed "with prejudice" — meaning Barbera cannot file the claim again in the same court.
