Lizzo Sued for Copyright Infringement: Why is Sydney Sweeney Involved in the Lawsuit?

Lizzo faces another legal turmoil when her new song, mentioning a viral line from Sydney Sweeney's trolled jean advertisement, uses an unlicensed sample from another existing track.

GRC Trust is filing a lawsuit against the 37-year-old rapper, whose real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, and her label Atlantic Records, over the claims of replicating samples of the song 'Win or Lose (We Tried)' without authorisation for her still unreleased single 'I'm Goin' In Till October,' based on the filing obtained by TMZ.

What is the Lawsuit About?

The alleged unauthorised use of the track samples came after GRC Trust revealed that Lizzo and her team tried and failed to acquire the rights to use it.

Speaking with TMZ, a rep for Lizzo shared: 'We are surprised that The GRC Trust filed this lawsuit. To be clear, the song has never been commercially released or monetized, and no decision has been made at this time regarding any future commercial release of the song.'

But GRC disagreed. The trust claimed that Lizzo's 'I'm Goin' In Till October,' also known as 'Good Jeans,' came out on Instagram and TikTok earlier this year and it featured both instrumental and vocal components from an already copyrighted work.

The filing mentioned that both parties tried to reach an agreement to sample the work, but none of the efforts succeeded.

The trust plans to sue Lizzo and Atlantic Records for copyright infringement, stating that they used the track samples for commercial gain without paying for the license.

They want both Lizzo and her label to pay for damages and obtain an injunction to block the song's exploitation.

Lizzo's Copyright Infringement History

This is not the first time for the Grammy Award winner to face a copyright battle. In 2022, the singer settled to conclude a long-running lawsuit over her hit song 'Truth Hurts,' where she was required to give credit to Yves Rothman, Jeremiah Raisen and Justin Raisen for co-writing the song.

Earlier, CeCe Peniston shared an Instagram post sampling a side-by-side comparison of her hit single 'Finally', released in 1992, and Lizzo's 2019 song 'Juice.'

It also proved that the younger hiphop/pop star copied the older dance diva's popular adlib line, 'ya-ya-ee, ya-ya-ee' in the chorus.

'Basically, I wanted to bring awareness to the fact that there's a lot of music that is out in the world today and different things may have been derived from different parts, pieces of somebody else's work or they may have similarities,' Peniston shared to The Daily News in 2019.

Sydney Sweeney's Involvement

Sweeney's name got dragged into the case because the teaser for the song in question featured a clip showing Lizzo in a skimpy outfit while car washing and says, 'I got good jeans like I'm Sydney.'

The line referenced Sweeney's American Eagle ad, which became viral for its alleged white supremacist undertone.