A music investment company is coming in like a "Wrecking Ball" and is suing Miley Cyrus over her Grammy award-winning song "Flowers."
The Disney Channel alum released the hit song after her very public divorce from actor Liam Hemsworth. When it was released in January of 2023, many drew parallels between it and Bruno Mars' 2012 song "When I Was Your Man."
Some speculate Miley rewrote "When I Was Your Man" because it was her and Hemsworth's wedding song, but that has never been confirmed.
Now, Tempo Music Investments is suing the singer for copyright infringement.
The lawsuit was filed in a Los Angeles courtroom on Monday. Tempo Music says it owns "the copyright interests" to the song because it acquired it from Philip Lawrence, who co-wrote it alongside Mars, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt.
Rolling Stone reports that Mars is not named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
“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. ‘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 lawsuit obtained by the outlet explained.
Songwriters Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack, who wrote the hit song, are among the many defendants in the case. Others named include Sony Music Publishing, Apple, Target, Walmart and other companies.
“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 complaint continues. “With ‘Flowers,’ Cyrus, Hein, and Pollack have created a derivative work of ‘When I Was Your Man’ without authorization.”
The company wants Cyrus to be barred from distributing, reproducing and publicly performing the song, according to People. Tempo Music is also requesting damages; however, the amount is not known.
The hit song earned Cyrus record of the year and best pop solo performance at the 2024 Grammys.
Miley and Mars have yet to publically respond to the suit.