Taylor Swift reacts to ‘Shake It Off’ Plagiarism row; 'lyrics were written entirely by me'
Taylor Swift has finally broken her silence in the ongoing Shake It Off plagiarism lawsuit, claiming that she wrote the track's lyrics 'entirely by herself'.
- Entertainment News
- 2 min read
Taylor Swift has finally broken her silence in the ongoing Shake It Off plagiarism lawsuit, claiming that she wrote the track's lyrics 'entirely by herself'. Two songwriters alleged that the popstar's 2014 hit track was copied from a single by the group '3LW' which peaked at number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001.
According to Variety, Taylor filed a declaration to the judge, wherein she mentioned that she never heard the song or even knew about the band until the plaintiffs' claims. The pop star and her legal aid said that the ‘Playas Gon’ Play' lyrics were a result of the 'terminology being a part of everyday language' and not due to any plagiarism.
Taylor Swift reacts to Shake It Off Plagiarism Lawsuit
"Until learning about Plaintiffs’ claim in 2017, I had never heard the song ‘Playas Gon’ Play’ and had never heard of that song or the group 3LW," Swift mentioned in the filing as per Billboard. She added that she didn't have the opportunity to even hear the earlier track since her parents “did not permit me to watch (MTV’s hit countdown show) TRL until I was about 13 years old.”
She said that similar phrases were used by children in her high school and that's how she chanced upon it. "I recall hearing phrases about players play and haters hate stated together by other children while attending school in Wyomissing Hills, and in high school in Hendersonville, the star mentioned.
Advertisement
She added, "These phrases were akin to other commonly used sayings like ‘don’t hate the playa, hate the game,’ ‘take a chill pill,’ and ‘say it, don’t spray it.’ … I was struck by messages that people prone to doing something will do it, and the best way to overcome it is to shrug it off and keep living.”
For the unversed, the plagiarism lawsuit has been making its way to courts time and again for about the last 5 years. It was first set aside by a judge in 2018, however, it was reinstated by an appeals court the following year. Taylor's Shake It Off came as a part of her fifth studio album, 1989.