Lizzo sued over Sydney Sweeney jeans reference track

Lizzo arrives at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

American pop star Lizzo is being sued in a California court over a snippet of an unreleased song that went viral because of a reference to Sydney Sweeney.

The post blew up in August after a reference to the US actress whose appearance in a jeans advertisement had already set the internet ablaze.

The social media post in question for the track “I’m goin’ in till October” has the four-time Grammy winner wearing not very much as she washes a car and says “I got good jeans like I’m Sydney.”

But lawyers for a firm called GRC Trust say the clip of the track -- which has never been sold -- uses a sample of “Win or Lose (We Tried),” a ’70s soul ballad by American band Windy City, without permission.

The firm, which owns the copyright for the track, wants Lizzo to compensate them because she “obtained profits they would not have realized but for their infringement” of the rights of the song.

Lawyers say they tried to come to an informal agreement with Lizzo’s team, “but reached an impasse, necessitating the filing of this case.”

The suit seeks an injunction to prevent the Lizzo song being distributed and money equal to the “defendants’ profits, plus all GRC’s losses.”

A representative for Lizzo told AFP: “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.”

The American Eagle ad starring the blonde-haired, blue-eyed star of “The White Lotus” and “Euphoria” sparked accusations it was a white supremacist dog whistle because of its word play in the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”

While the outrage was confined to a small number of activists, senior Republicans like Ted Cruz lashed out at the “crazy Left” which the Texas senator said had “come out against beautiful women.”