By Lucy Bevan, Music Editor
Last Thursday (1st of October 2026), Bill Withers’ publisher, Mattie Music Group, filed a copyright lawsuit claiming that Olivia Dean's album closer, ‘I've Seen It’, is too similar to Withers' 1981 hit ‘Just the Two of Us’ to be a coincidence.
Surprisingly, the claimant named Capitol Records, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Publishing, and Kobalt Music Publishing America as the defendants, not Dean or her co-writers, Bastian Langebæk and Max Wolfgang.
In early August, the plaintiff commissioned musicologist Dr Alexander Stewart to analyse the similarities between the two songs. Stewart reportedly found ‘repeated copying of a "distinctively protectable melody"’.
It’s important to note that Dean has not yet been found liable for this copyright infringement, and as of today, the defendants have yet to publicly respond to the allegations. But the case has got me thinking. Will songwriting ever run its course? Is there a point where every song will be a version of another?
Going back to September last year, amidst the chaos that is the first month of university, Dean released her second album The Art of Loving, which sat comfortably as my top listened to album for the autumn and winter that followed.
The release felt like a hug for 19-year-old me, and from start to finish was, and still is now, a warm and gentle reminder to appreciate love in all its forms. In Dean’s words, ‘I know that so many songs are written about love, but I think it’s the most important thing in the world, so we must keep digging on the topic.’
I distinctly remember the first time I listened to ‘I've Seen It’. Interestingly, my thoughts on the track were dissimilar to those of Mattie Music Group. For me, the repeated guitar arpeggio that opens the song instantly brought to mind ‘Bless the Telephone’ by Labi Siffre, sounding almost like a softened version of the 1971 folk ballad.
However, following these recent allegations, and having listened to both ‘I’ve Seen It’ and ‘Just the Two of Us’ on repeat to see what the fuss is all about, admittedly, the tracks are very similar. I even found myself singing the melody of ‘I’ve Seen It' whilst letting the introduction of ‘Just the Two of Us’ accompany me.
So, Withers’ publishers might have a point. If Dean and her team did in fact use ‘Just the Two of Us’ as inspiration for the album closer, the best course of action would have been to negotiate an appropriate license with the copyright owners of the song, so in this case including Mattie Music Group.
It’s unlikely that Dean had any intent to copy Withers when writing the song, and it may be a case of complete coincidence; but with a song as huge as ‘Just the Two of Us’, it's sensible to assume that Dean and her writers are one of over a billion combined streams of the song on Spotify alone, making it difficult to dismiss the chance of accidental inspiration.
Lottie Merchant
Whatever the outcome of the case, ‘I’ve Seen It’ still stands as a lyrically wonderful, heartfelt entry about the beauty of friendship, and the love that we exude outside of romantic connection. Dean puts it simply: ‘[She’s] seen it dance, with friends around the table / In Eleanor, Rosie and Louise’ (I've Seen It).
Dean’s vulnerability in her songwriting is nothing but admirable, and as a notable BRIT School alumna alongside the likes of Adele and Amy Winehouse, this is unsurprising.
If musical composition interests you, Bristol University Music Society’s (BUMS) Composition Network runs sessions at 5pm on Tuesday in G16 and Thursday in Albert's Bar. To find out more, you can contact bumscomposition@outlook.com. Just make sure to read up on copyright infringement beforehand.
Maybe the art of songwriting is just as complex as The Art of Loving after all.
Featured image: Epigram / Lucy Bevan
Do you think the songs are similar?
