Looks like Taylor Swift might not be able to shake this off.
The 11-time Grammy Award winner finally addressed the 2017 copyright lawsuit that accuses her of stealing the lyrics to her 2014 hit, “Shake It Off,” which earned her three Grammy nominations.
The lawsuit was originally filed by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, who allege the 32-year-old stole lyrics from 3LW’s 2001 hit “Playas Gon’ Play” to write “Shake It Off.”
In court documents seen by Billboard, Swift claimed she “never heard” the song she’s accused of plagiarizing, saying, “The lyrics to ‘Shake It Off’ were written entirely by me.”
“In writing the lyrics, I drew in part from experiences in my life and, in particular, the relentless public scrutiny of my personal life, ‘clickbait’ reporting, public manipulation and other forms of negative personal criticism that I learned that I just had to shake them off. out and focus on my music,” the singer wrote, according to the outlet.
Songwriters Hall and Butler claim that Swift removed the “Playas gon’ play / And haters, they gon’ hate” lines from their 2001 song to write the 2014 song with “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play , play / And the haters are going to hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.”
The “Lover” singer also argued that the lyrics “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate” are not uncommon, saying she heard them used during her childhood, as were the “statements like ‘don’t hate the playa, hate the game,’” and “take a chill pill,” she added.
“I remember hearing phrases about players playing and hating haters uttered together by other kids while attending school in Wyomissing Hills and high school in Hendersonville,” she wrote in the documents.
“The first time I heard the song was after this claim was made,” Swift said of 3LW’s 2001 song.