Olivia Dean faces a California lawsuit over alleged musical similarities.
Bill Withers' Just The Two of Us has 948 million streams.
Dean's I've Seen It has reached 246 million Spotify plays.
Olivia Dean Accused Of Copying Bill Withers’ ‘Just The Two Of Us’ In California Copyright Suit
The case alleges similarities between the soul classic and Dean's song I've Seen It, while her label and publishers have been named as defendants.
Summary
British singer Olivia Dean has been accused of copying the melody of Bill Withers' Just The Two of Us in a legal case filed in California. The complaint centres on I've Seen It, the closing track from her 2025 album The Art of Loving, which won Album of the Year at the Brit Awards.
Olivia Dean faces copyright lawsuit over I've Seen It
Mattie Music Group, which manages Withers' catalogue, has claimed that the two songs contain musical similarities that are too striking to have occurred by coincidence. The company said a musicologist was commissioned to compare the compositions and found substantial similarities, including repeated elements from Withers' melody.
The lawsuit names Capitol Records, Universal Music Group and Dean's publishing companies as defendants. Dean and her co-writers Bastian Langebæk and Max Wolfgang have not been named personally in the claim.
Just The Two of Us and I've Seen It compared
According to legal documents seen by the BBC, the publishers argue that Withers' song had enough commercial exposure for Dean and her collaborators to have encountered it before writing I've Seen It. The track, originally released under saxophonist Grover Washington Jr's name, became a major hit in 1981 and earned Withers a Grammy for Best R&B Song.
The publishers also claimed that the record label was notified about the alleged infringement in August, but I've Seen It remained available on streaming services. The defendants have not yet responded to the lawsuit.
Dean's song has become a major streaming success, with around 246 million Spotify plays, while Just The Two of Us has reached approximately 948 million streams.
Olivia Dean's song and Bill Withers' legacy
I've Seen It is a reflective acoustic ballad about different forms of love, including relationships with family, friends and strangers. Dean previously said in an interview with W Magazine that the song was written after she had been drinking red wine and that hearing it back for the first time left her in tears.
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Dean won Best New Artist at the 2026 Grammys, while The Art of Loving reached number one in the UK and number three in the US.
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