Miley Cyrus Responds to Bruno Mars Plagiarism Allegations

Miley Cyrus is fighting back against claims that her record-breaking hit “Flowers” copied Bruno Mars‘ 2012 ballad “When I Was Your Man.” Legal documents filed on Nov. 20 reveal Cyrus and her co-writers Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack have moved to dismiss the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Tempo Music Investments in September. Her lawyers argue that the company, which only owns rights through one co-writer’s catalog, Philip Lawrence, lacks standing to pursue the case.

“Only owners of exclusive rights may sue for copyright infringement,” Cyrus’ attorneys state in the documents. They further contend that “an assignee of only one co-author lacks exclusive rights and, therefore, also lacks standing to sue for infringement,” noting that other co-writers Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt aren’t affiliated with Tempo Music Investments, per Page Six.

In their original filing on Sept. 16, Tempo claimed, via E! Online, “Any fan of Bruno Mars’ ‘When I Was Your Man’ knows that Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ did not achieve all of that success on its own.” The lawsuit alleged that “‘Flowers’ duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements of ‘When I Was Your Man,’ including the melodic pitch design and sequence of the verse, the connecting bass-line, certain bars of the chorus, certain theatrical music elements, lyric elements, and specific chord progressions.” The documents further argue it is “undeniable” that Cyrus’ Best Pop Solo Performance Grammy win “would not exist” without Mars’ 2012 song.

The dispute comes amid “Flowers’” considerable success, including eight weeks atop Billboard’s Hot 100 and two Grammy wins in 2024. During her acceptance speech, Cyrus remained humble: “This award is amazing, but I really hope that it doesn’t change anything because my life was beautiful yesterday. Not everyone in the world will get a Grammy, but everyone in this world is spectacular, so please don’t think that this is important.”

The song, released on Jan. 12, 2023, hours before ex-husband Liam Hemsworth’s 33rd birthday, reportedly references their failed marriage and lost Malibu estate. “We were good / We were gold / Kind of dream that can’t be sold / We were right / ‘Til we weren’t / Built a home and watched it burn,” she sings, alluding to their multimillion-dollar home destroyed in a 2018 fire.

In a June W Magazine interview, Cyrus stated about her first Grammy recognition: “No shade, but I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and this is my first time actually being taken seriously at the Grammys? I’ve had a hard time figuring out what the measurement is there, because if we want to talk stats and numbers, then where the f— was I? And if you want to talk, like, impact on culture, then where the f— was I?” She emphasized, “This is not about arrogance. I am proud of myself.”