Adam Levine has defended fellow pop star Olivia Rodrigo amid accusations of plagiarism.
Ever since she stormed the charts with her debut album Sour in May, Filipino-American Rodrigo has faced accusations that some songs and her visual presentation borrowed elements of other artists' work without proper attribution.
In a video posted on his Instagram Stories, Levine, who formerly mentored aspiring singers on the US version of The Voice, called for more empathy surrounding Rodrigo, describing songwriting as a “tricky” art form.
“There’s all this drama about Olivia Rodrigo,” Levine said. “These are tricky things, and anyone who’s ever written a song knows that sometimes you rip something off inadvertently, it makes it to tape, then it gets released and then there’s a lawsuit.”
Back to the future
Levine’s intervention comes as Rodrigo has been retroactively adding extra songwriting credits to Sour.
Last week, Paramore singer Hayley Williams and former guitarist Josh Farro were listed as co-songwriters for the track good 4 u.
This comes after the song was criticised by Paramore fans for being similar to the rock band’s 2007 hit Misery Business.
In June, Rodrigo also retroactively credited Taylor Swift on her song deja vu for its interpolation of the latter's 2019 track Cruel Summer.
Upon Sour's release, Swift was also listed as co-writer for 1 step forward, 3 steps back for its similarities to her 2017 song New Year's Day.
While Williams, Farro and Swift have not made any official comment on their attributions, Hole frontwoman Courtney Love has accused Rodrigo of plagiarising her band’s artwork.
In June, Love posted a promotional image of a mascara-smeared Rodrigo wearing a tiara and noted its similarities to the cover of Hole 1994 album Live Through This, photographed by Ellen von Unwerth.
"It was rude of her and [record label] Geffen not to ask myself or Ellen von Unwerth,” Love said in the comments.
"It’s happened my whole career so I don’t care, but manners is manners.”
Levine called for more “compassion” to new artists.
“I do think that we could probably meet this with a little more compassion and understanding,” he said.
“When you take someone who’s a newer artist, and she’s doing things that emulate the ones from generations removed, I don’t know how bad that is.
“I think it’s kind of a cool thing to introduce the whole generation of young people to different musical ideas ... That’s just my opinion.”
'No hard feelings'
Rodrigo is not the first star caught up in plagiarism accusations over the years.
In 2015, Mark Ronson bumped up the songwriting credits from six to 11 for the hit Uptown Funk after a copyright claim that the song was heavily inspired by writers of The Gap Band’s 1979 funk anthem Oops Upside Your Head.
Also in 2015, Sam Smith agreed to give the late Tom Petty a co-writing credit for Stay With Me, owing to its similarities to the 1989 hit I Won’t Back Down.
"Let me say I have never had any hard feelings toward Sam," Petty said in 2015.
"All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. Most times you catch it before it gets out the studio door but in this case it got by. Sam’s people were very understanding of our predicament and we easily came to an agreement."
MATCH INFO
Who: UAE v USA
What: first T20 international
When: Friday, 2pm
Where: ICC Academy in Dubai
Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE
There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.
It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.
What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.
When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.
It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.
This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.
It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO
Day 1 at Mount Maunganui
England 241-4
Denly 74, Stokes 67 not out, De Grandhomme 2-28
New Zealand
Yet to bat
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
About RuPay
A homegrown card payment scheme launched by the National Payments Corporation of India and backed by the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank
RuPay process payments between banks and merchants for purchases made with credit or debit cards
It has grown rapidly in India and competes with global payment network firms like MasterCard and Visa.
In India, it can be used at ATMs, for online payments and variations of the card can be used to pay for bus, metro charges, road toll payments
The name blends two words rupee and payment
Some advantages of the network include lower processing fees and transaction costs
So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
