Lawsuit against Olivia Dean, accused of copying Bill Withers’ “Just the Two of Us”

British pop star Olivia Dean has been accused of copying the melody of Bill Withers’ classic soul song “Just The Two of Us”, in a lawsuit filed in California.

The complaint centres on Dean’s song “I’ve Seen It”, taken from her 2025 Brit Award-winning album, The Art of Loving.

“Just The Two of Us” was a hit for Withers in 1981, and the publishers of the late singer’s catalogue claim the two songs “share musical features” to a degree that they cannot have arisen by chance alone.

The lawsuit names Dean’s record label, Capitol Records, its parent company Universal Music Group and her publishing companies as defendants. It does not seek damages from the singer herself or her co-writers Bastian Langebæk and Max Wolfgang.

In legal documents seen by the BBC, Mattie Music Group, which looks after Withers’ back catalogue, said it had hired a musicologist to examine the two songs. He concluded that the works contain considerable similarities, including repeated copying of the melody from Just The Two of Us, the documents said.

The publishers claim they notified Dean’s label of the possible infringement in August, but the music was not removed from distribution. To prove plagiarism, Mattie Music Group would have to prove that Dean and her co-writers had previously heard Withers’ original composition.