Ed Sheeran will perform at the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards, to be held at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas on Thursday 11th May 2023. The ‘Bad Habits’ singer, who recently won a $100 million copyright lawsuit over his track ‘Thinking Out Loud,’ will showcase his talent at the event.
Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks will host the celebrity-packed event, featuring performances by a lineup of country stars, including Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Jelly Roll, Keith Urban, and Morgan Wallen.
At the conclusion of the event, country music legend Dolly Parton, aged 77, will perform the debut live rendition of ‘World On Fire,’ the lead single from her forthcoming rock album, ‘Rockstar.’
Last week, Ed Sheeran, the busker-turned-superstar, performed an impromptu gig on the streets of New York by standing on a car and later took to the top of a double-decker tourist bus in Los Angeles for another free concert.
Celebrating victory in legal battle
These performances came after he won his latest legal battle against accusations of copying elements of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get it On’ and being sued by the heirs of the song’s co-writer, Ed Townsend.
The Grammy winner was cleared of the plagiarism accusations in a case that ended 4th May 2023. Speaking outside the court, the pop megastar hailed his victory as a win for songwriters everywhere.
“I’m just a guy with a guitar who loves writing music for people to enjoy. I am not and will not allow myself to be a piggy bank.
“I’m obviously very happy with the outcome of the case and it looks like I’m not having to retire from my day job after all. At the same time, I’m unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all.
“We’ve spent the last eight years talking about two songs with dramatically different lyrics, melodies, and four chords which are also different and used by songwriters every day all over the world.
“These chords are common building blocks which were used to create music long before ‘Let’s Get It On’ was written and will be used to create music long after we are all gone.
“They are in a songwriter’s alphabet, our toolkit, and should be there for all of us to use. No one owns them or the way they are played, in the same way, that no one owns the colour blue.”
