Stella Lefty is facing another round of plagiarism accusations.
The TikTok breakout singer has now faced comparisons to five different tracks in a matter of weeks, with listeners most recently drawing parallels between “seven eleven” and Wheatus’ 2000 classic “Teenage Dirtbag” – a song she covered in 2025, with the comments on the cover now spammed with accusations of plagiarism.
@stellaleftycovers teenage dirtbag 😛 #fyp #teenagedirtbag #cover ♬ original sound – Stella Lefty
The discussion started with fan comparisons rather than a formal complaint, taking off after several other Lefty songs were picked apart for sounding familiar. “Ok so thought it was a coincidence at first but it’s literally every song,” wrote a user on TikTok.
“So I kept hearing people saying that ‘seven eleven’ sounded like ‘Teenage Dirtbag’, I didn’t hear it at first, but yeah, now I do,” another user wrote. “So that’s what, 4 or 5 songs that ‘coincidentally’ sound like very well known and recognisable songs without writing credits given to the original writers?”
Others have also accused the “Misery” singer of using AI to make her music, with some suggesting that could explain why listeners keep drawing similarities between her songs and existing tracks. Of course, this is all speculation and Lefty has been approached for comment.
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This whole mess started when Lefty’s breakout single “Boston” prompted comparisons to Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season”, particularly around the chorus. Kahan is now listed as a songwriter on “Boston” after his representatives contacted Lefty’s team.
Lefty addressed the situation in a Vanity Fair interview, saying, “When I was writing the song, I wasn’t thinking about Noah Kahan. I was literally thinking about nothing at all. I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes, so I’m like, if this sounds like that, whatever, all good.”
Fans have since combed through Lefty’s socials finding several videos of her covering “Stick Season” on her TikTok.
Next up was “Summer You Were Mine”, which fans noticed contained similarities to The Chicks’ 1998 song “There’s Your Trouble”. Unlike the “seven eleven” debate, that one has an answer. The song was an approved interpolation, meaning it reworks a recognisable element of an existing song rather than directly sampling its recording.
The Chicks songwriters Tia Sillers and Mark Selby were initially absent from streaming credits, but Lefty’s label Atlantic Records told Rolling Stone that this was due to a “streaming platform error”. Their names have since been added.
“Why Wouldn’t We?” has also drawn comparisons to Blake Shelton’s “I’ll Name the Dogs”, with some listeners are naming RaeLynn’s “God Made Girls” in the same discussion. No public legal claim or formal credit change has been announced in relation to that track.
And then there is “Misery”, which has been compared online to “A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman.
Five songs in, it is understandable that people are noticing a pattern, even if not every similarity amounts to copying. Pop and country music share musical conventions and online comparison videos are not exactly a court of law, but the internet’s new nickname for the artist – “Stella Thefty” – doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.
However, none of it appears to be slowing Lefty down commercially. Her forthcoming headline dates include sold-out shows in Nashville and Chicago and she’s also set to play Strummingbird in Australia this October. The festival is scheduled to hit Ballarat, Newcastle and the Sunshine Coast, with Lefty joining Bailey Zimmerman, Cooper Alan, Dexter & the Moonrocks, Brad Cox, Max Jackson, Sara Berki, and more on a lineup led by Tyler Childers, Sam Barber, and James Johnston.
From PEDESTRIAN.TV
