Miley Cyrus sued over “Flowers” ​​because she allegedly copied the song by Bruno Mars

A new lawsuit has been filed against Miley Cyrus, alleging that she and her fellow songwriters copied parts of a Bruno Mars single while writing her Grammy-winning smash “Flowers.”

In a new lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Los Angeles, a company called Tempo Music Investments alleged that “Flowers” contains unauthorized “exploitation” of several elements of Mars' 2013 Hot 100-charting song “When I Was Your Man.” The lawsuit also names Sony Music Publishing, Apple, Target, Walmart and several other companies as defendants accused of distributing “Flowers.”

Tempo Music said it owns a portion of the U.S. copyright to “When I Was Your Man,” having acquired it from Philip Lawrence, who co-wrote the song with Mars, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt. 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 this success alone. 'Flowers' copies numerous melodic, harmonic and lyrical elements of 'When I Was Your Man,' including the melodic pitch design and progression of the verse, the connecting bass line, certain bars of the chorus, certain elements of the theatrical music, lyrical elements and certain chord progressions,” says the complaint, which was filed by Rolling Stone claimed.

“Given the combination and many similarities between the two recordings, it cannot be disputed that 'Flowers' would not exist without 'When I Was Your Man,'” says the complaint, which names Cyrus' songwriting colleagues Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack as co-defendants. “With 'Flowers,' Cyrus, Hein and Pollack have unilaterally created a derivative work of 'When I Was Your Man.'”

Representatives of Cyrus did not immediately respond to Rolling StonePlease leave a comment.

In February, Cyrus won her first Grammy for “Flowers,” a song from her eighth album Endless summer holidaysThe hit, which stayed at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks, was written after her divorce from actor Liam Hemsworth and was widely seen as a declaration of independence.

Tempo Music is seeking damages, the amount of which will be determined at trial, and an injunction prohibiting Cyrus and the other defendants from copying, distributing or publicly performing “Flowers.”