Olivia Dean has been accused of plagiarizing Bill Withers’ classic, Just the Two of Us.
The owners of Withers’ catalog made the allegation against his fellow Grammy winner in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. federal court in Los Angeles.
Mattie Music Group claimed that Dean’s track, I’ve Seen It, stole “substantial” aspects of Withers’ 1981 collaboration with Grover Washington Jr, which reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 before making a much more recent comeback on the social media platform TikTok.
“In early August 2026, after listening to I’ve Seen It several times, Plaintiff’s representatives came to what they considered the obvious and inescapable conclusion that I’ve Seen It had copied a substantial and significant portion (Just the Two of Us), including, without limitation, repeated copying of the distinctly copyrightable melody, and had clearly infringed Plaintiff’s copyright in and to the original work,” Mattie’s lawsuit states.
Mattie’s lawsuit recounts how the band hired musicologist Alexander Stewart to analyze I’ve Seen It and compare it to Just the Two of Us. Stewart “concluded that the works had substantial similarities in protectable musical expression,” according to the plaintiff.
“The number, character, and arrangement of the shared musical features are so striking as to support the conclusion that the similarities do not result from coincidence, independent creation, or reliance on common musical elements,” Mattie’s lawsuit continues.
The lawsuit does not name Dean or his I’ve Seen It collaborators Bastian Langbaek and Max Wolfgang as defendants, but alleges that the three “had a reasonable opportunity to encounter the original work before creating I’ve Seen It,” the final track on Dean’s 2025 album, The Art of Loving.
Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Group’s Capitol Records – Dean’s publisher and label, respectively – were named as defendants by Mattie. So did Kobalt Music Publishing America, Wolfgang’s publisher.
Mattie’s lawsuit added that the plaintiff provided “written notice to each defendant identifying the recording, the accused composition, and the significant musical similarities” on August 17. But, according to the lawsuit, “defendants continued to reproduce, distribute, license, perform in public, and commercially exploit” I saw it.
In addition to damages, the suit said it was seeking an injunction that would “permanently restrain further acts of copyright infringement by (the) defendants.”
Representatives for Dean, Capitol Records and Kobalt did not immediately respond to The Guardian’s requests for comment on Friday. Billboard reported that a representative for Kobalt declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Dean, 27, won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in February. The London native has also won four Brit Awards, including Album of the Year with The Art of Loving. Additionally, on July 31, Dean and Sam Fender’s Rein Me In became the longest-running No. 1 single in UK history.
Withers, meanwhile, is a three-time Grammy Award winner who hails from Slab Fork, West Virginia. He and Washington’s Just the Two of Us won the 1981 Grammy for Best R&B Song.
Mattie Music Group is administering Withers’ estate following his death in Los Angeles at the age of 81 in March 2020. It is named for the crooner’s late mother, Mattie, and is run by his widow, Marcia Johnson.
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