According to legal documents reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, Cyrus’s lawyers filed a response to a lawsuit brought by Tempo Music Investments in September. They argued that expert analysis is required to properly compare the two songs and assess the claims of similarity. Representatives for both Cyrus and Tempo declined to comment when contacted by EW.

Tempo owns only a partial stake in “When I Was Your Man,” having acquired the songwriting catalog of co-writer Philip Lawrence. The company has no direct affiliation with Mars or the song’s other co-writers, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt. This distinction prompted Cyrus’s legal team to file a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that Tempo does not hold exclusive rights and therefore lacks legal standing to sue for copyright infringement.

In its complaint, Tempo claims that “Flowers” could not exist without “When I Was Your Man,” alleging that Cyrus’s song repeats multiple melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements from Mars’s 2013 track. Since its release in January 2023, “Flowers” has frequently been compared to “When I Was Your Man” by listeners, particularly because of parallels in the lyrics.

In a May 2023 interview with British Vogue, Cyrus addressed the creation of “Flowers,” revealing that the song was originally written with a different chorus and a much sadder, 1950s-inspired tone, before evolving into its final, self-empowering version.