Ed Sheeran is being sued for $20 million for allegedly copying a Matt Cardle song.

The people who wrote the X Factor winner's song Amazing have filed a lawsuit against Ed in a Californian court stating that his hit single Photograph contains 39 identical notes as Amazing, as well as having strikingly similar "words, vocal style, vocal melody, melody, and rhythm" to Matt's song.

Photograph – which was co-written by Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid who is also named in the lawsuit – has been sold more than 3.5million times since its release in 2014.

It has also been viewed over 200 million times on YouTube and was used in the movie Me Before You.

Meanwhile Matt Cardle's third release, Amazing, failed to make it past No.84 in the UK chart.

The lawsuit states: "While Sheeran, McDaid, and the other Defendants received career-defining accolades, awards, and a fortune for Photograph, the true writers of much of Photograph received nothing."

It claims there is an "unusual level of strikingly similar copying" between the songs and says "note-for-note copying makes up nearly one half of Photograph".

The same lawyer who successfully sued Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for the similarities between Blurred Lines and a Marvin Gaye song is set to represent the songwriters.

Ed has yet to comment on the allegations.

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