Taylor Swift sued for 'Shake It Off' lyrics

Image: Taylor Swift

The song, which has over 1 billion views on YouTube, is claimed to have lyrical similarities to a 2013 song by R&B artist Jesse Braham called 'Haters Gone Hate'.

The chorus of Taylor Swift's global smash (above) does contain those words as well as “playas gonna play”, another phrase claimed to be copyrighted by Braham. There is, however, no musical similarity between the two songs.

Mr Braham, whose stage name is Jesse Graham, claims he has spoken to Swift’s record label, Big Machine, a number of times about the issue. Initially, all he requested was a selfie with the singer and a writer’s credit, but now he has added a lawsuit to the list of demands.

The 50 year old revealed to the New York Daily News that he could have in fact prevented one of 2015’s love it or hate it earworms; “Her hook is the same hook as mine. If I didn't write the song Haters Gone Hate, there wouldn't be a song called Shake It Off”. Swift has also provoked the ire of Nicki Minaj this year, a surefire celebrity deathmatch we would love to have front row seats for.

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