Miley Cyrus Accused of Plagiarism in New Song

On September 18, Miley Cyrus released her tenth studio album, Bass Persuades. The album, by most metrics, has been positively received by critics and fans alike.

However, what should have been a moment of celebration for the singer has become, at least partially, overshadowed by allegations of plagiarism.

The allegations come from the French disco legend Amanda Lear, who took aim at the Cyrus track Red Lights. In a post on her Instagram account, Lear “thanked” Cyrus for the “tribute” to Lear’s 1978 hit song The Sphinx.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amanda Lear (@amanda.lear)

According to Lear, she is not litigious and has no plans to take legal action against Cyrus. However, she did say that she has taken the issue up with her producer and record label, possibly seeking a retroactive songwriting credit for the song.

Lear goes on to claim that she knows that Cyrus is a fan of her music, and that she was familiar with her music when she wrote Red Lights.

The controversy has seemingly divided fans. Some have defended Cyrus, saying that the song is not plagiarism and simply uses and reinterprets similar musical elements as musicians have done for centuries. Others, however, say that the similarities between the two songs are too great to ignore and that Lear should be given credit for her contribution.

The controversy has also resulted in no small amount of name-calling, with some Cryus fans calling Lear a “grandma” and accusing her of trying to get a moment in the spotlight at Cyrus’ expense.

But while there is some truth to these kinds of accusations becoming far too common in the music industry, there are two elements that make this particular case difficult to quickly dismiss. The first is Cyrus’ own history when it comes to allegations of plagiarism.

A Problem with Flowers

Two years ago, almost to the day, Miley Cyrus and other authors of her song Flowers were sued by Tempo Music Investments, a company that owns a stake in the Bruno Mars song When I Was Your Man.

To be clear, Mars himself is not involved in the case. But the allegations are straightforward, that Cyrus’ song uses elements from Mars’ song, including lyrics.

In that regard, Cyrus’ Flowers seems to be poised as a response or a critique to Mars’ When I Was Your Man. The chorus of Mars’ song goes, “I should’ve bought you flowers/And held your hand/Should’ve gave you all my hours/When I had the chance/Take you to every party ’cause all you wanted to do was dance/Now my baby’s dancing/But she’s dancing with another man.”

Cyrus’ song goes, “I can buy myself flowers/Write my name in the sand/Talk to myself for hours/Say things you don’t understand/I can take myself dancing/And I can hold my own hand/Yeah, I can love me better than you can.”

While the similarities are obvious, Cyrus’ attorneys have argued that the phrases are very common and can’t be owned by any one person. But even if they can be, Cyrus would likely have a strong fair use argument, as she’s critiquing the assumption that a woman needs a man to do those things for her.

They made that argument in a motion for summary judgment in February 2026. However, as of this writing, the case is still pending.

While this lawsuit doesn’t have any bearing on the Lear case, it’s much more difficult to dismiss one plagiarism allegation when another is still pending. We’ve seen this with Stella Lefty and other musicians. Plagiarism allegations often come in waves and they do impact each other.

For example, Cyrus’ team may be more eager to settle with Lear, not wanting to risk opening up a second legal front. Though Lear has said that she doesn’t wish to take legal action, as with the Flowers case, there are other parties who may have standing and may not be so against litigation.

In short, even if the Flowers case doesn’t go anywhere meaningful and has no direct bearing on Lear’s allegations, it still makes it more difficult to outright dismiss Lear’s claims. But that doesn’t mean that they should be outright accepted either.

Thoughts on Lear’s Allegations

To be clear, I am not an expert on music plagiarism. My areas of focus are text and images. That said, I do agree that there are similarities between the two songs. But whether those similarities warrant a retroactive songwriting credit or some other action is not something that I can say with confidence.

That said, what I find interesting about this story is not what the allegations are, but who is making them.

Lear is not some unknown artist who has never had a hit or a big moment in the spotlight. She’s had a 50+ year career in music, modeling, acting and more. Though she is known for some pretty wild stunts to keep her name in the headlines, she has not used plagiarism allegations in the past.

She has over 20 albums to her name and has had a career that most performers can only dream of. In short, these allegations are not coming from someone who is either inexperienced with the music industry or someone who needs the attention.

Her experience in the music industry along with her lack of prior allegations of plagiarism makes it more difficult to dismiss her claims. Even if she is wrong, I doubt that the allegations were made in bad faith.

That point is furthered by the fact that she isn’t threatening legal action and instead is handling things through industry channels. Whether anything comes of that remains to be seen, but it’s not the typical approach of an artist pressing a weak case.

The only real argument against Lear is that she posted about the allegations on social media at all. Though I obviously don’t think she was completely sincere with her “thanks”, the post was still fairly tame. Fans and journalists have made a far bigger deal out of it than Lear likely intended.

Does this mean that Lear is right? Absolutely not. But I also don’t think that she’s being malicious.

Bottom Line

The truth is this. As we discussed last week, retroactively granting songwriting credits is a fairly common occurrence in the music industry. The most unusual thing about this case was that there was a public post about it at all and that it came from another significant celebrity.

If she had contacted her representatives and never mentioned it on Instagram, I doubt anyone would be the wiser.

As I see it, this is a fairly tame dispute as far as the music industry is concerned. It will likely be resolved, one way or another, behind the scenes. I doubt it will do much to alter the trajectory of either artist’s career.

If anything, this case is a look at the “inside baseball” of the music industry. Disputes like this are common but rarely merit a single article. The most unusual thing about this case is that Lear posted about it at all.

I would be surprised if we hear much more about this case. But it will be interesting to see if Lear is eventually added to the credits for the song.