Pop sensation Lizzo has been struck with a fresh wave of controversy — this time not over body-shaming lawsuits or viral lyrics, but an accusation of copyright theft tied to an unreleased track she teased online.
According to a complaint filed Tuesday in California federal court, The GRC Trust claims the Grammy-winning artist lifted musical and lyrical elements from the 2013 composition “Win or Lose (We Tried)” without permission.
The lawsuit alleges that Lizzo — whose real name is Melissa Jefferson — and her label Atlantic Records “incorporated, interpolated, and sampled instrumental and vocal components” from the copyrighted song into her unreleased work, reportedly titled “I’m Goin’ In Till October” or “Good Jeans.”
Viral Snippet Sparks Lawsuit
The spark for the Lizzo Copyright Theft Suit came from a now-deleted clip Lizzo shared on TikTok and Instagram in August, where she referenced actress Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle denim campaign with the lyric:
“I got good jeans like I’m Sydney.”
The post went viral before vanishing — but not before catching the attention of GRC Trust, which claims Lizzo’s track carried “striking similarities” to “Win or Lose (We Tried).”
The trust asserts that Lizzo and her team “continued to exploit the infringing work for commercial gain” despite knowing or recklessly ignoring GRC’s copyright ownership, which is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
