Taylor Swift will face a jury trial over accusations that she plagiarised lyrics for her 2014 hit “Shake It Off” from another song, The Guardian reports.
The paper, which says it contacted representatives for the pop star for comment, adds that a US judge refused Swift’s request for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that a jury could find that the song copied “Playas Gon’ Play”, a song released by girl group 3LW in 2001. Both songs feature variations on the lines “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate”.
District Judge Michael W Fitzgerald had originally dismissed the lawsuit in 2018, saying that the lyrics were too “banal” to be copyrighted, citing 13 songs – by the likes of Fleetwood Mac and the Notorious BIG – that featured similar phrasing.
