Lizzo is facing legal heat over a viral unreleased track referencing Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney. The issue, however, isn’t the controversial lyric, but the music itself, as Lizzo is facing a lawsuit alleging she unlawfully sampled a 1970s soul track.
Lizzo sued for song with reference to Sydney Sweeney
Lizzo is being sued in California by the GRC Trust, which claims she unlawfully sampled the 1970s song Win or Lose (We Tried), originally performed by soul singer Sam Dees, for a track that went viral online in August.
The 13-second clip, which fans have nicknamed “Good Jeans or I’m Goin’ In Till October,” has since been scrubbed from Lizzo’s social media. It showed the Grammy-winning artist washing a Porsche in a denim outfit, saying: “I got good jeans like I’m Sydney.” The line was widely interpreted as a nod to Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad campaign, which some commentators accused of promoting “white beauty standards.”
While that cultural debate fueled the clip’s popularity, lawyers for GRC Trust were more concerned with what was behind the catchy line, alleging that Lizzo used their copyrighted music without permission.
According to court filings, the company claims Lizzo and her team “obtained profits they would not have realised but for their infringement.” They seek an injunction to prevent any further distribution of the song and a financial settlement covering all profits and losses connected to the alleged infringement.
Lizzo’s team has pushed back, saying the lawsuit makes little sense since the song hasn’t been commercially released or monetized. “We are surprised that The GRC Trust filed this lawsuit,” her spokesperson said. “To be clear, the song has never been commercially released or monetised, and no decision has been made at this time regarding any future commercial release of the song.”
This isn’t Lizzo’s first brush with copyright disputes. Back in 2019, three producers sued her over Truth Hurts, claiming she borrowed from an earlier track called Healthy. That case ended in an out-of-court settlement.
Originally written by Devanshi Basu for Mandatory.
