Miley Cyrus sued over ‘Flowers’ — accused of copying this Bruno Mars hit
Miley Cyrus says she can buy herself flowers — but were they stolen flowers?
The 31-year-old singer is being sued for allegedly copying Bruno Mars’ 2013 song “When I Was Your Man” on her 2023 Grammy Award-winning track “Flowers.”
The Post obtained the lawsuit, which was filed by Tempo Music Investments in a Los Angeles court Monday.
Mars, 38, is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
The suit said there are “striking similarities” between the two songs and that Cyrus’ track “would not exist without” Mars’ ballad.
“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 documents state. “‘Flowers’ duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements of ‘When I Was Your Man.'”
Cyrus is named as a defendant alongside “Flowers” co-writers Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack. Sony Music Publishing and Apple are among the other defendants.
Tempo Music Investments claim in the docs they “acquired the copyright interests” to Mars’ song “in or around 2020.”
The company wants Cyrus and the rest of the defendants to stop “reproducing, distributing, or publicly performing ‘Flowers.'” The plaintiff is also seeking an unknown amount in damages.
The Post has reached out to reps for Cyrus and Mars.
The lyrics to “Flowers” appear to directly reference “When I Was Your Man,” although that’s never been confirmed by Cyrus herself.
In his song, Mars sings, “Too dumb to realize that I should’ve bought you flowers.” Miley retorts in her track, “I can buy myself flowers.”
“And held your hand,” Mars continues in his ballad, as Cyrus says in hers, “And hold my own hand.”
Cyrus released “Flowers” in January 2023 as the lead single off her eighth studio album, “Endless Summer Vacation.” The song won Cyrus her first Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance in February.
Since “Flowers” came out, fans have been convinced that the song is about Cyrus’ ex-husband Liam Hemsworth, whom she was married to from 2018 to 2019.
The former Disney Channel star was asked about the speculation in an interview with British Vogue last May.
“I never need to be a master at the craft of tricking an audience,” Cyrus said. “It will set itself on fire all by itself.”
She also revealed that she originally wrote the single “in a really different way.”
“The chorus was originally: ‘I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand, but I can’t love me better than you can,'” she recalled. “It used to be more, like, 1950s. The saddest song. Like: ‘Sure, I can be my own lover, but you’re so much better.’”
