Nocturnal 
Olivia Dean’s record label has been hit with a lawsuit accusing the Brit Award winner of copying the melody of Bill Withers’ 1981 soul classic Just The Two of Us.
The legal complaint, filed in federal court in California, claims Dean’s track I’ve Seen It, from her chart-topping 2025 album The Art of Loving, bears “obvious and inescapable” similarities to Withers’ hit, as first reported by the BBC and Rolling Stone.
The case has been brought by Mattie Music Group, which manages Withers’ back catalogue, rather than Dean herself. Instead, the lawsuit names her record label Capitol Records, parent company Universal Music Group, and her publishing companies as defendants. Notably, it does not seek damages from Dean or her co-writers Bastian Langebæk and Max Wolfgang.
What the lawsuit claims
According to legal documents seen by the BBC, Mattie Music Group hired a musicologist to compare the two songs. He reportedly concluded that the tracks “contain substantial similarities”, including what the suit describes as the “repeated copying” of Just The Two of Us’s melody.
The lawsuit argues that the “number, character, and arrangement of the shared musical features are so striking” that they could not have come about by coincidence, independent creation, or shared musical conventions.
To succeed, the publishers will need to show that Dean and her co-writers had a reasonable chance to have heard Withers’ original before writing I’ve Seen It. The suit leans on the song’s “extraordinary and sustained” commercial success, including “decades of radio play”, to make that case.
Mattie Music Group says it first flagged the alleged infringement to Dean’s record label back in August, but claims the song continued to be distributed, licensed and commercially exploited regardless.
The songs in question
Just The Two of Us, performed by Bill Withers alongside Grover Washington Jr., was released as a single in February 1981 after appearing on the album Winelight the previous October. It reached number two in the US charts and won the Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Song in 1982. Withers died in 2020. The track has been streamed on Spotify around 948 million times.
I’ve Seen It closes Dean’s second album, The Art of Loving, released in September 2025. The acoustic ballad reflects on different forms of love in her life, from teenage crushes to family and friendship. Speaking to W Magazine last year, Dean said she wrote it after having “a lot of red wine”, adding: “When I heard it back for the first time, I burst into tears. It felt like the loveliest note to end on.” The song has been streamed roughly 246 million times.
The Art of Loving topped the UK charts and reached number three in the US, and was named Album of the Year at the Brit Awards. Dean also won Best New Artist at this year’s Grammys and is currently on the final leg of her Art of Loving Live tour.
What happens now
As it stands, none of the defendants have formally responded to the lawsuit. The BBC says it has approached Capitol Records, Universal Music Group and Dean’s representatives for comment, and none have replied so far. The case is ongoing, and no court date or outcome has yet been confirmed.
