Singer Lizzo sued for plagiarism after a song in which she referred to an ad sparked heated controversy
Lizzo performs onstage at the OUTLOUD Festival on May 31, 2025 in West Hollywood, California. PHOTO: Hugh Roberts / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia
The American singer Lizzo has been sued in a Californian court for a fragment of an unreleased song that went viral thanks to a mention in which the name of the actress Sydney Sweeney appears, the media in the United States wrote on Wednesday.
The clip in question, posted on social media this summer, shows the US singer washing a car, wearing a jacket and denim mini shorts, belting out the line “I got good jeans like I'm Sydney” – a direct reference to a recent advert by the actress Sydney Sweeney, which sparked heated controversy in the United States.
But lawyers for music company GRC Trust say the video for that snippet – which never led to the song's commercial release – uses music from “Win or Lose (We Tried)”, a 1970s soul ballad by US group Windy City, without permission.
The GRC Trust, which owns the copyright to that song, is seeking damages from the singer Lizzo, as she “obtained benefits that she would not have achieved without this infringement” on the copyright.
In their complaint, filed in court on Tuesday, the company's lawyers say they tried to reach an informal agreement with singer Lizzo's management team, “but reached an impasse,” which prompted them to file a lawsuit, according to AFP and Agerpres.
The complaint asks the US court to prevent the distribution of Lizzo's song and an amount equal to the profits made by the singer, “plus all losses suffered by GRC”.
Lizzo said she was “surprised” by the lawsuit, according to her spokeswoman.
“To be clear, the song has never been commercialized or monetized, and no decision has yet been made regarding any future commercial release of the song,” the spokeswoman added.
However, the video fragment went viral, as did the advertisements for American Eagle jeans brand with actress Sydney Sweeney, to which the song refers.
The American Eagle jeans ad campaign has been equated by some with white supremacist propaganda because its slogan “Sydney has great jeans” relies on the ambiguity between “jeans” and “genes”, two words that sound the same in English.
Blonde-haired, blue-eyed American actress Sydney Sweeney, known for her roles in the TV series “Euphoria” and “The White Lotus,” plays a denim-clad young woman in the ad, who holds up a poster in which the word “genes” is crossed out and replaced by the word “jeans.”
US President Donald Trump took advantage of the controversy on social networks to defend the actress, declaring that she is a “registered Republican” who, in his opinion, made the “hottest ad of the moment”.
