Taylor Swift speaks out on the plagiarism lawsuit filed against her hit single, Shake It Off: “The lyrics were written entirely by me.”
Taylor Swift and her legal team have finally spoken out on the copyright lawsuit that was filed against her in 2017 by Nathan Butler and Sean Hall. The two songwriters are accusing the Shake It Off artist of stealing her 2014 hit track’s lyrics from a song they wrote for American girl group, 3LW called Playas Gon’ Play which launched in the year 2000.
Nathan and Sean believe that Swift pinched the “playas gon’ play / and haters, they gon’ hate” lines from 3LW’s R&B/hip hop track, which launched in the year 2000. Now, in new court documents filed earlier this week (August 8), and reviewed by E! News, she vehemently denies the plagiarism accusations being made against her Grammy-nominated single.
In the official declaration, Taylor outlines her songwriting process, and the team that was involved: “The lyrics to ‘Shake It Off’ were written entirely by me. I co-wrote ‘Shake It Off’ with Karl Martin Sandberg, known professionally as Max Martin, and Karl Johan Schuster, professionally known as Shellback, at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles, in February 2014.”
The specific lyrics that Nathan and Sean believe the pop songstress plagiarised belong to her track’s catchy, anthemic hook: “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.” Taylor argues in her statement, “we began writing the song after I discussed with Max Martin and Shellback that I wanted to write a song that would help me cope with the stresses in my life, and would also double as a song that would make people get up and dance.”
