James Arthur has come out swinging for The Script, after it was revealed the X Factor winner had settled a copyright lawsuit with the Irish band.
James was landed with a legal claim by the band over his biggest hit, the 2016 single Say You Won’t Let Go, which has racked up 1.8billion Spotify streams.
The Script said it was too similar to their 2008 hit, The Man Who Can’t Be Moved.
While the terms of the 2018 settlement are not known, The Script singer Daniel O’Donoghue and guitarist Mark Sheehan have now been formally listed as songwriters on Say You Won’t Let Go.
Sources claim both sides agreed not to talk about it publicly as part of the deal, but on Friday James made his feelings very clear in a serious of Twitter posts.
“Where there’s a hit there’ll be a bunch of greedy bitch, egomaniac vultures like The Script,” he wrote in his first tweet.
He then followed this up in a subsequent tweets, writing: “I can sleep at night knowing that ‘say you won’t let go’ was a completely original idea and every single musicologist in the UK said there was no case and threw it out.
“The Script then pursued the case in the US with a lawyer that employs very dirty tactics.
“The only reason I had to settle back then was because I couldn’t afford the legal fees in America at the time and they knew that, as we were on the same management. Of course they didn’t want any details spoken about publicly as part of the deal.”
He concluded: “Congrats on stealing a percentage of a song you had nothing to do with.
The Script’s lawyer, Richard Busch, also represented Marvin Gaye’s estate in its successful lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over the song Blurred Lines.
According to The Mirror, the lawsuit demanded “all streaming, distribution, publishing and touring revenue connected to the song,” as well as statutory damages.
Say You Won’t Let Go, which spent three weeks at number one in the UK in 2016, reportedly generated $20 million (£14million) in royalties.
James had previously said that there was “no case” to answer over the two songs supposed similarities.
HuffPost UK has contacted reps for The Script for comment.