Miley Cyrus might be able to “buy herself flowers,” but she’s now found herself needing to hire a lawyer too.

The release of her hit single Flowers in 2023 marked a major milestone in Cyrus’ career, showcasing her evolution from Disney’s Hannah Montana to the bold, post-teen pop icon, and finally to her mature phase with the album Latest Summer Vacation.

However, the massive success of Flowers—which garnered over two billion streams on Spotify and earned Cyrus two Grammy Awards—soon became overshadowed by controversy, with allegations that the song borrows heavily from Bruno Mars’ 2013 hit, When I Was Your Man.

Though Mars himself hasn’t leveled any accusations, Tempo Music Investments, a company that owns part of the copyright to the song, filed a lawsuit against Cyrus in September. The suit claims that Flowers “would not exist” without exploiting “numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements” of When I Was Your Man, including its melodic pitch patterns, bass line, sections of the chorus, theatrical elements, lyrics, and chord progressions.

In When I Was Your Man, Mars sings: “I should’ve bought you flowers/And held your hand/Should’ve gave you all my hours/When I had the chance/Take you to every party/’Cause all you wanted to do was dance.”

Cyrus’ Flowers responds with: “I can buy myself flowers/Write my name in the sand/Talk to myself for hours/Say things you don’t understand/I can take myself dancing/I can hold my own hand.”

On November 20, Cyrus’ legal team filed a motion in California’s Central District Court to dismiss the lawsuit.

Tempo Music Investments owns its share of the rights to Mars’ song through the acquisition of songwriter Philip Lawrence’s catalog. However, Cyrus’ attorneys argue the case should be dismissed because Tempo represents only one of the four co-writers of When I Was Your Man (the others being Mars, Ari Levine, and Andrew Wyatt). According to Cyrus’ legal team, copyright law permits only a “legal or beneficial owner of an exclusive copyright” to sue for infringement.

Moreover, her lawyers contend that while the two songs share basic “musical building blocks,” there are significant differences in melody, chords, lyrics, and other musical elements, which undermine the validity of the lawsuit.

Here’s the music video of When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars and Flower by Miley Cyrus: