In a statement released on Tuesday, Coldplay fired back against accusations that their hit song Viva La Vida was copied from the Joe Satriani song If I Could Fly.

The band put out the following message through their rep:  “If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him.  Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write the song Viva La Vida.   We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavors.”

Satriani filed a copyright infringement lawsuit last week in Los Angeles claiming that Coldplay’s Grammy-nominated song contains “substantial, original portions” of his 2004 piece.  Check out the comparison of the two songs here and decide for yourself.

Joe is pictured below, as is Chris Martin of Coldplay.

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Filed under: Celebrities, Coldplay, Music