There comes a new lawsuit that pop superstar Taylor Swift can't shake. A California judge has ruled that the singer must face a jury trial over accusations that she plagiarized the lyrics of her hit song "Shake It Off" from another track.
In a decision issued on Thursday, United States District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald rejected Swift's bid to throw out a suit that said she took wording from the 2014 song "Playas Gon' Play" by R&B girl group 3LW.
Fitzgerald said there were "some noticeable differences" between the songs but also "enough objective similarities" that the case should go to a jury trial.
"Although Defendants have made a strong closing argument for a jury, they have not shown that there are no genuine issues of triable fact," the judge wrote.
A spokesperson for Swift had no comment on Friday. In 2017, her representatives had called the songwriters' claim of copyright infringement "ridiculous" and "nothing more than a money grab."
In "Shake It Off," Swift sings: "the players gonna play, play, play, play, play, and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate."
"Playas Gon' Play," written by Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, included the phrases "players, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate."
Hall and Butler said the combination of playas or players with hatas or haters was unique to its use in their song. The pair are seeking unspecified damages.
Their case had been thrown out in 2018 but the pair appealed and the suit was revived.
