Stella Lefty Critics Say She Copied Old Hit Songs. Here’s What the Experts Say
Categoria: Musica
Amid a meteoric rise, the singer has been labeled “Stella Thefty” by some loud haters online. Industry experts are wondering what all the fuss is about.
Por Billboard | 11/09/2026
Breakout singer Stella Lefty has been dogged by criticism that her songs sound like existing hits. It’s a common situation in pop music, experts say — but rarely does it get this heated. It started when fans saw that Noah Kahan had a songwriting credit on Lefty’s viral hit “Boston,” owing to its similarities to his own megahit “Stick Season.” The singer herself later confirmed that Kahan had been added to the credits after his team reached out to say they “think this sounds similar” to his song. Related ‘We’ve Been Told We’re Crazy’: Lawyers in Landmark Copyright Case Aren’t Backing Down Billboard to Add Smart Media Albums As Chart-Eligible Sales Formats Duane 'Keffe D' Davis Gives First Interview After Tupac Shakur Murder Conviction Then, listeners noticed that “Summer You Were Mine,” another song on her debut album Long Way Home , sounded a lot like “There’s Your Trouble,” a Grammy-winning 1998 hit by The Chicks . Her label, Atlantic Records, later clarified that the original songwriters, Tia Sillers and Mark Selby , had always been credited on Lefty’s song, but said their names had been left off Spotify and Apple due to “a streaming platform error.” Another Stella track, “Why Wouldn’t We,” has drawn comparisons to Blake Shelton ’s country hit “I’ll Name The Dogs.” Yet another, “Misery,” has now been linked to the song “A Million Dreams” from the musical film The Greatest Showman . No credits have been added to either of those songs. Representatives for Lefty declined to comment for this story. Songs that sound similar are hardly a new phenomenon in the music industry. Ed Sheeran once noted there are “very few chords used in pop music” and that tens of thousands of songs are uploaded to Spotify every day. Charlie Puth echoed that sentiment last year when Taylor Swift faced scrutiny over tracks on her The Life Of A Showgirl album, saying there are “bound to be similarities” to something that came before: “It’s almost never done maliciously.” Such scenarios crop up routinely behind the scenes, multiple industry experts tell Billboard . Sometimes, an artist’s team will notice possible overlaps early in the process; other times, another artist or label will flag the issue, as appears to have happened with Kahan and Lefty. If the songs are close enough, the two sides can agree on a co-writing deal or an “interpolation” — a license to re-use existing written music in a new recording. Even if common, similar sounds can easily turn into PR problems — as Lefty is quickly learning. Amid a meteoric rise, she’s also been tarred as “Stella Thefty” by many on social media, where videos comparing the songs have gone viral and claims of plagiarism proliferate. The songs do