Olivia Dean is facing legal action over her song I’ve Seen Itwith Bill Withers’ music publisher alleging that the closing track from her 2025 album The Art of Loving copies his 1981 hit Just the Two of Us.
According to the lawsuit filed Thursday, October 1, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Mattie Music Group, operating as Bleunig Music, accused Universal Music Group, Capitol Records, Sony Music Publishing and Kobalt Music Publishing of copyright infringement, calling the similarities between the songs “obvious and inescapable.”
The lawsuit claims that the 27-year-old English singer-songwriter’s track “copied in large and significant part” the “distinctively protectable melody” of Withers’ song, which he co-wrote with Ralph MacDonald and William Salter during his contract with Bleunig.
The filing claims that the publisher’s musicologist found clear similarities between the two songs, with Dean’s track repeatedly using the earlier song’s melodic structure.
After completing its analysis, Bleunig noted that it sent cease and desist letters to all four defendants in August, but alleges that they continued using the songstress’ song.
Dean and her co-writers, Bastian Langebaek and Max Wolfgang, are not named as defendants in the lawsuit. However, the complaint alleges that the trio “had a reasonable opportunity to encounter” Withers’ song before creating I’ve Seen It.
Bleunig has asked the court to permanently block further use of the track and award damages, legal fees and costs. It is also seeking an order to seize and destroy all existing copies of the song.
About Oliva ‘I’ve Seen It’ and Bill ’ ‘Just the Two of Us’
Olivia Dean released I’ve Seen It on September 26, 2025, as part of her second studio album, The Art of Loving. Meanwhile, Grover Washington Jr.’s Just the Two of Usfeaturing Bill Withers on vocals, was released as a single in February 1981. It reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won the Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1982.