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Bill Withers' publisher sues over Olivia Dean's Brit Award-winning song 'I've Seen It' for copying soul classic

From the Newshound archive · first published 2 October 2026 · last updated 3 October 2026.

Olivia Dean's second album, 'The Art of Loving', which won Album of the Year at both the Brit Awards and MOBO Awards, is at the centre of a lawsuit claiming her song 'I've Seen It' copies Bill Withers' 1981 classic.
Olivia Dean's second album, 'The Art of Loving', which won Album of the Year at both the Brit Awards and MOBO Awards, is at the centre of a lawsuit claiming her song 'I've Seen It' copies Bill Withers' 1981 classic.

Mattie Music Group, which owns Bill Withers' back catalogue, filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit in Los Angeles on 1 October claiming Olivia Dean's 'I've Seen It' copies the melody of Withers' 1981 hit 'Just the Two of Us'. A musicologist hired by the publishers concluded the songs share similarities "so striking" they could not have arisen by coincidence, including what the complaint calls "repeated copying" of Withers' melody. The lawsuit targets Capitol Records, Universal Music Group and Dean's publishing companies — not Dean herself or her co-writers Bastian Langebæk and Max Wolfgang.

Publishers say they warned Dean's label of the alleged infringement in August, but the track was never pulled from streaming platforms.

'I've Seen It' has racked up around 246 million Spotify streams; Withers' original has nearly 948 million plays and remains one of the most sampled songs in pop history.

MoreThe TelegraphOlivia Dean accused of copying Bill Withers’s Just the Two of UsTMZOlivia Dean Song Accused of Copying Bill Withers' 'Just the Two of Us' - TMZThe Hollywood ReporterOlivia Dean Song Accused of Plagiarizing Bill Withers’ “Just the Two of Us” - The Hollywood Reporter
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