Olivia Dean’s biggest year has hit an unexpected complication.
The Grammy-winning singer faces a copyright lawsuit over her song “I’ve Seen It”. The case concerns similarities to Bill Withers’ 1981 classic “Just the Two of Us”.
Bill Withers, Ralph MacDonald and William Salter wrote the hit.
The dispute centres on “I’ve Seen It”, the closing track from Dean’s 2025 album “The Art of Loving”.
Mattie Music Group manages Withers’ catalogue. The company filed the lawsuit in California.
It alleges that Dean’s song contains musical similarities that go beyond coincidence.
The claim
Mattie Music Group claims that “I’ve Seen It” copied significant parts of the melody from “Just the Two of Us”.
The publisher hired musicologist Alexander Stewart to compare the two songs.
According to the complaint, Stewart found substantial similarities in their protectable musical expression.
Mattie Music Group says the songs share several distinctive musical features. The publisher argues that their number and arrangement support its infringement claim.
The company also says the similarities did not come from common musical elements or independent creation.
Mattie Music Group says it notified the parties about the alleged infringement in August.
However, the publisher claims that the song continued to receive commercial distribution after that notice.
Who is being sued?
Olivia Dean does not appear as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Her “I’ve Seen It” co-writers, Bastian Langebæk and Max Wolfgang, also do not appear as defendants.
Instead, the lawsuit names Capitol Records, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Publishing and Kobalt Music Publishing America.
The complaint argues that Dean and her co-writers could have encountered “Just the Two of Us”.
The song has enjoyed decades of popularity, radio play and streaming exposure. It has also received numerous cover versions.
Mattie Music Group uses those factors to argue that the song was widely accessible to modern songwriters.
Why ‘Just the Two of Us’ matters
Released in 1981, “Just the Two of Us” became one of Withers’ signature songs.
The track reached No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.
More than four decades later, it remains one of the most recognisable songs of its era, which is central to the publisher’s argument that the work would have been familiar to modern songwriters.
What’s next?
Mattie Music Group is seeking damages, with the amount to be determined at trial. The lawsuit also seeks to prevent further alleged infringement.
For now, the case is only at its opening stage, and the allegations remain claims made in court filings.
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