Suffolk superstar Ed Sheeran has said he is trying to clear his name at the High Court in London during a copyright trial over his song, Shape of You.

The 31-year-old, who grew up in Framlingham, is involved in a legal battle with two songwriters, Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue, who claim the 2017 hit rips off parts of their song 'Oh Why'.

While facing questions over the production of his song at the Rolls Building Mr Sheeran said he is "a songwriter, I write songs, that is it".

Shape of You was released as a lead single from the star's Divide album and topped the charts in 34 countries.

Andrew Sutcliffe QC, for the two songwriters, has claimed Mr Sheeran "borrows ideas and throws them into his songs, sometimes he will acknowledge it but sometimes he won’t".

Legal proceedings were launched by the Framlingham-based singer and his co-writers Steve McCutcheon and John McDaid in May 2018, when they asked the High Court to declare they had not infringed Mr Chokri and Mr O'Donoghue's copyright.

%image(15106456, type="article-full", alt="Song writer John "Johnny" McDaid co-wrote the 2017 song Shape of You")

Speaking during the second day of the trial Mr Sheeran said: "These proceedings are here so I can clear my name.

“We have an action against us which me, Johnny and Steve all say is false.”

Mr Sutcliffe explained yesterday to Sheeran what a "strategic lawsuit against public participation” is.

Known as a Slapp, he described it as “a lawsuit intended to intimidate opponents by burdening them with the cost of a legal defence until they abandoned their claim”.

Mr Sheeran, who is also Ipswich Town's shirt sponsor this season, was asked “that was your strategy, wasn’t it?” by Mr Sutcliffe

“No,” Mr Sheeran replied, adding: “I wanted to prove that I was right.”

Mr Chokri and Mr O’Donoghue allege Shape Of You infringes “particular lines and phrases” of their song, but Sheeran told the court: “I haven’t copied Oh Why.”

In the witness stand, Sheeran frequently burst into song and hummed musical scales and melodies as he was questioned over how Shape Of You was written.

Part of an unreleased song by Mr Sheeran was accidentally played during the court case yesterday.

In his written evidence, Mr Sheeran, who admitted in court he “can’t read music”, said the use of “minor pentatonic pattern” was “very common” and used in his song I See Fire and by Nina Simone.

He sang a snippet of I See Fire, Nina Simone’s Feeling Good, as well as Shape Of You, to the courtroom.

“If you put them all in the same key, they sound the same,” he said.

He repeatedly told the court that he, Mr McDaid and Mr McCutcheon wrote Shape Of You together.

Mr Chokri, a grime artist who performs under the name Sami Switch, and Mr O’Donoghue, claim that a central “Oh I” hook in Shape Of You is “strikingly similar” to an “Oh Why” refrain in their own composition.

%image(15106597, type="article-full", alt="Sami Chokri leaves the Rolls Building at the High Court in London")

The hooks were described by Mr Sheeran as using the “minor pentatonic scale with two vowels” when asked if they were similar.

Mr Sutcliffe claimed Sheeran’s co-authors could not recall “how this Oh I section came into being”, suggesting it was because the Framlingham-based singer “originated it”.

“No,” Mr Sheeran said, adding: “I would say the melody and all of it was all of us three in a circle, bouncing back and forth. That was how it originated.”

The singer told the court he has written thousands of songs since he was 13, and admitted sometimes forgetting what he has composed.

Mr Sutcliffe earlier suggested that Mr Sheeran was “an obsessive music squirrel” who “consumed music voraciously in 2015 and 2016”.

The singer previously denied he was “talent spotting” and “plugged in” to the UK music scene in 2015, when Mr Chokri was making a return after a two-year absence.

Mr Sutcliffe suggested there was “no way” Mr Sheeran could remember “every song that you’ve ever listened to” and asked if he could exclude the possibility he heard Oh Why and “forgot about it”.

“I can and that’s why we’re here,” Mr Sheeran replied.

Mr Sutcliffe accused the singer of pursuing the case in a way that was “demonstrably unfair” to Mr Chokri and Mr O’Donoghue.

He claimed Sheeran’s lawyers brought legal proceedings because PRS for music – the industry body that collects and distributes royalties – had “frozen” payments for UK broadcast and performance income from Shape Of You, something he alleged amounted to less than 10% of the song’s total revenues.

He told the court that “hand on heart, I have no idea how any of my songs do”, adding: “My songs go out and get released, I’ve no idea how much they earn”.

The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, continues.