Taylor Swift ‘Shake It Off’ Lawsuit: Singer Faces $42 Million Case; Song Lyrics Plagiarized?
Taylor Swift is being sued over the lyrics of "Shake It Off" for a huge amount; $42 million, revealed Time. R&B artist Jesse Braham with stage name Jesse Graham said that Taylor plagiarized the lyrics from his 2013 song "Haters Gone Hate."
The 50-year old claims that the "Shake It Off" chorus, "Cause the players gonna play,play,play,play,play / and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate" came from his song.
Jesse's "Haters Gone Hate" contains the phrase "Haters gonna hate, players gonna play." The two songs have little resemblance; other than that having the same lyrics in the chorus.
"Her hook is the same hook as mine," Graham tells the Daily News, Saturday. "If I didn't write the song 'Haters Gone Hate,' there wouldn't be a song called 'Shake It Off.'"
The R&B singer said that there was no way Taylor Swift could have come up with the lyrics by herself; adding that Swift used the lyrics approximately 72 times in her song.
Several months ago, Graham noticed the similarity when Swift performed her 2014 anthem on "The Ellen Degeneres Show."
He has since spoken to representatives from Swift's record label Big Machine, and Sony four to five times.
He started with a simple request for compensation; which is to be named as a writer on "Shake It Off." Jesse also requested for a selfie with Taylor. The "Bad Blood" singer's team repeatedly sent him away because his claim did not have merit.
"At first I was going to let it go, but this song is my song all the way," said Jesse Graham.
Jesse runs a church organization calld New Day Worldwide, and says he also plans to file a lawsuit against CNN for "New Day," the title of its morning show.
"Mr. Braham, who is representing himself, cannot claim copyright protection for the phrases 'haters gone hater' and 'playas gone play'." told a legal source to Perez Hilton.
"Shake It Off" was co-written by Shellback, and Max Martin with Taylor Swift. It was the pop star's lead single from her album "1989."
