Musician Sam Chokri has hit headlines recently after pursuing in a over the musician’s 2017 hit song Shape Of You.
On Wednesday, the lengthy battle – which he referred to as – after judge Mr Justice Zacaroli threw out songwriter Chokri and his co-defendant Ross O’Donoghue’s argument that Shape Of You infringed on ‘particular lines and phrases’ from their prior track, Oh Why.
In the ruling, Mr Justice Zacaroli concluded that Sheeran ‘neither deliberately nor subconsciously’ copied a phrase from the song when writing his tune, which went on to become the best-selling song of the year in the UK and the most streamed track in ’s history.
Chart-topping Sheeran co-wrote the song with Steven McCutcheon and Johnny McDaid, best known as a member of Snow Patrol.
What more is known about Sam Chokri though, and when was Oh Why released?
Who is Sami Chokri?
Sam Chokri is a British grime artist from Caversham, Reading.
He was first interested in music through poetry in primary school, before developing an interest in grime aged 16.
Chokri told in 2012: ‘When I started secondary school [Highdown in Caversham] there were a lot of people who were very into grime music, and I started seeing that I could take it further, take it seriously, and then I started actually making songs.
‘I was 16 when I met Twan Pemberton through a friend and he gave me the opportunity to get into a real, professional studio instead of just a corner of the bedroom, and get it out there properly.’
The singer performs under the stage name Sami Switch, and has released two albums and multiple singles throughout his career.
They include recent records Temperature and Victoria in 2021, Isolation in 2020 and Stay Steady in 2016.
His two albums are Solace, released in 2015, and Trouble, which came out in 2016, which were preceded by mixtapes Carpe Diem and Memento Mori, which came out in 2012.
The 28-year-old also gained coverage through SB:TV, run by Sheeran’s late friend, .
When was Oh Why released?
Oh Why, the tune at the centre of the court case alongside Sheeran’s Shape Of You, was released in 2015.
Chokri and his co-writer O’Donoghue claimed that the “Oh I” hook in Shape Of You is ‘strikingly similar’ to an “Oh Why” refrain in their own composition.
A music expert used in the court case argued that Shape Of You and has ‘distinctive differences’ from Oh Why.
American forensic musicologist Anthony Ricigliano concluded that it is ‘objectively unlikely’ that similarities in the two songs ‘result from copying.’
As part of his ruling, Mr Justice Zacaroli said ‘the two phrases play very different roles in their respective songs’.
In a statement following his legal victory, and ‘cost on [his] mental health’ caused by the copyright battle and implored songwriters to ‘support’ and ‘be kind to one another’.
