Miley Cyrus Seeks Dismissal of 'Flowers' Lawsuit

- The lawsuit was not filed by Bruno Mars, but by a music rights acquisition platform called Tempo Music Investments. Tempo owns a portion of the copyright to "When I Was Your Man" after purchasing the catalog of one of its co-writers, Philip Lawrence. - Cyrus's initial attempt to have the case dismissed was denied by a federal judge in March 2025. Her legal team had argued that Tempo Music did not have the standing to sue because it only owns a fraction of the song's rights and not all co-owners were involved in the lawsuit. - The judge rejected the dismissal, stating that a co-owner of a copyright can transfer their rights, and the recipient "steps into the shoes" of the original owner with the ability to enforce the copyright. - The lawsuit alleges specific musical similarities, including a shared "melodic pitch design and sequence of the verse" and a "connecting bass-line." The plaintiffs claim the opening vocal line of the chorus in "Flowers" begins and ends on the same chords as the verse's opening line in "When I Was Your Man." - In response, Cyrus's lawyers argue that "Flowers" is an "answer song," a long-standing musical tradition where one song comments on another. They contend this makes it a transformative work protected under the fair use doctrine. - Publicly, many listeners and publications noted the lyrical inversion between the two songs immediately after the release of "Flowers." Mars' lyric "I should have bought you flowers" is answered by Cyrus's "I can buy myself flowers." - Tempo Music Investments was launched in 2019 in partnership with Warner Music Group and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, with over a billion dollars in spending capacity to acquire music catalogs. - In addition to Cyrus and her co-writers, the lawsuit names numerous other defendants, including distributors and retailers like Sony Music Publishing, Apple, and Walmart.