The plagiarism claims against Stella Lefty, and Earle Meets World

I'm Adrienne Arsono, CBC News' Chief Correspondent and your host for When It All Went Wrong. It's an investigative podcast about the people who get hurt when the systems meant to protect us fail. It features original reporting from some of Canada's best journalists. Each series unravels the moment it all went wrong, not by accident, not from poor planning, but because someone chose to do wrong and others chose to do nothing. And then follow When It All Went Wrong, wherever you get your podcast. This is a CBC podcast. I'm Elimina Dumaymoud and this is commotion. Look, I really love it. It's a thing that I really love. When a song just comes out of nowhere and basically takes over, I'm guessing you've probably heard this one by now. Look, I can't escape that song. It has been basically everywhere. That is Boston, but Stella Lefty. Stella has had a wild year. She has just exploded in popularity, but it hasn't been without controversy. Jocos Correlli and Fran Hoffner are here to talk about it. It's nice to have you here. Joe, there are people who are saying, who is Stella Lefty and why do I need to know that name? And for them, you say who's Stella Lefty? Stella Lefty is a 24-year-old country tinged singer-songwriter from the Chicago suburbs. After the breakout success of Boston, the song we just heard, she rushed released her debut album, "Long Way Home" for Atlantic Records. They have a new country imprint. That was a couple of weeks ago. Debuted number 11 on Billboard, which is pretty good for a total newcomer. This song has been-- It's a monster. It's a monster. It's a monster. It's a monster. It's a monster. But she's also become this internet main character of the last couple of months in large part because her father, Eric Lovkowski, Eric Lovkowski, say it. Is a billionaire co-founder of Groupon for all the millennials out there and currently the CEO of a publicly traded AI health company? So this is like dovetailed into the NEPO Baby Obsession of the last few years, this sort of timeless thing in music and Hollywood, you know, Liza Manelli is Judy Garland's daughter, et cetera, et cetera. But I think, you know, this-- which I know we'll talk about, this NEPO Baby thing is just really picked up and snowballed as a buzzword as sort of consumer savviness or at least the performance of it grows alongside and say and become inequality. I will say that drive by of Groupon for millennial out there. I will never forgive you for that, but that's neither here nor there. But yes, her father is a billionaire friend because her father, because the LFD's father is a billionaire, people have called her a NEPO Baby, people have called her an industry plant. But you literally wrote the book on NEPO Babies, what do you make of these accusations? I think she's somewhere in the middle where I call her an industry baby, but maybe neither a plant nor a distinct NEPO Baby. I usually think for the NEPO Baby label to really stick, there has to be some even tenuous connection between what the parent does and what the kid does. I think there are a lot of millionaire and billionaires, children of millionaires and billionaires who have careers in the arts and who get away with that somewhat Scott free and it's maybe easier to pay attention to when the industry the parent is in and the industry the kid is in, feels so diametrically opposed, like I think of the maris sisters being kind of witchy and spooky, but coming from this like NFL dynasty, like that's sort of a fun NEPO Baby ish thing, but I think just Pagula, similarly, yeah, the tennis ball, yeah, but I think with Stella lefty it doesn't feel particularly remarkable, but it has made her a really easy target in this regard. There's a thing we're all reacting to, there's a thing the culture is reacting to when we sort of like, you know, when these accusations are banied about whether it's industry plant or NEPO Baby, and I want to get to that in a moment, but Joe, I want to talk about this idea that she's an industry plant, her manager, Adam Alpert, here's what he told the Rolling Zone, he said industry plants don't exist, no matter what anybody says or things from outside of the music business, what do you, what do you think of this idea that there is no such thing as an industry plant? I think that's more or less correct, every major label artist that succeeds, succeeds because their major label really wants them to succeed because they put money on the line to take a bet on someone and they do everything in their power to push that person into the world, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, if it was so easy to just flip the industry plant switch, we'd have a lot more pop stars, I think, you know, think of all the people who have failed and flopped, even people who are famous and beloved, again, I think of course there's marketing dollars behind all of this, behind every viral campaign you see, there's probably some gasoline being thrown on the fire financially, if not in terms of behind the scenes connections. So of course that happens and it happens more for certain artists, but I don't know that it happens more for certain artists because of who their dad is or because of who their team is, I think that can be part of it, but I think it happens in line with how much the label believes that the art can succeed and if the song is doing well, people are likely to push it as hard as possible. I think I reject industry plant, I reject NEPO baby, I just call her a rich kid. That's, it's right, it's much simpler than that, right, like yes, she has access and that is how her music maybe got made, but then also the organic support for this song appears to be anyway a real phenomenon. I do think about like this sort of allergy that some people have to the idea of a NEPO baby or industry, industry plant has to do with either speed or context. Speed is like, Hey, I did, I barely had any time to realize that this is the thing. And suddenly this is not only a thing, it's the thing at the top of the charts and has been so for months, it feels sort of, you know, feels like, Hey, this kind of came out I know where it must be something nefarious going on. Then the other thing I think is context, right, like Stella left these making country music. She's signed to a country label, she's from Chicago. That is not, you normally, a place associated with country music, Joe, what do you make of this idea that like a kid from suburban Chicago can go, you know what, it's time for me to make some country music and find a astonishing success at doing that. It's that I have to do with her or is it have to do with country right now? Taylor Swift is from Pennsylvania, she moved to Nashville. As a young person, she's studied at the hands of, you know, Nashville studio system, but I think country like all genres, in particular, I think of it as a corollary to hip-hop is, has always been about this idea of authenticity and who's real country and who's not country and who's acting and who gets away with playing a character or a role. This goes all the way back to the beginnings of the genre, which is people saying, I'm realer than you are, you're a fake, I'm a fake, you know, the end of the day, this is a set of tools, right, the pedal deal, banjo, putting a draw on your voice, there's plenty of indie rock singers who sound British, who are not British, you know, because they're imitating the punk of the 70s in one. You know, this is, these genres, especially the ones, punk, country, rap that are built on this idea of self-mythology, this idea of authenticity, like the push and pull between that has been powering these artists and these scenes and these genres from the very beginning. All right, friend, you are from suburban Chicago, do you hear Stella Lefty's music and go like, "Now I hear Chicago in this, actually, that's the thing that I hear." No, but I think I hear the thing that feels very common for many suburban Chicagoites or a certain kind of suburban white Midwesterner in general, which is this desire to have a kind of geographical identity that they feel doesn't exist there, which is of course not true. There is a huge cultural identity in music and art in the Midwest, but I think it feels very natural, especially for Midwesterners in their early 20s to make this mass exodus out of the Midwest, to go to the South, to go out east, to go to the West and kind of pick up the culture from there, seeing the cheese from the Chicago suburbs went to Tulane, sort of picked up maybe an interesting country music. I know a bajillion people wear this happen to them and like, I'm no more innocent just because I came out east and sort of picked up a certain kind of New Yorkiness. And I sort of see maybe a little bit of an insecurity around identity and sort of trying on different hats to find out who she is in this world, but I don't think that's necessarily a terrible crime. I will say that's also a dominant aesthetic right now. It's extremely dominant and aesthetic right now among young G, among Gen Z and younger, especially in white spaces. It's like you're seeing bell buckles and cowboy boots in the East Village every day. Listen, Tuesday in Texas has been number one. one for what it feels like 85 years at this point. There is something to be said about country speaking to this moment. I will say though, there is the additional layer of why Stella lefties in so much hot water, where she's like pretty quickly after Boston comes up. People are like, ah, this sounds a little familiar. This sounds a little bit similar to Noah Khan's stick season. And obviously we are gonna play the comparison side-by-side, so let's roll it. ♪ On a train back to Boston ♪ ♪ They were jumping up and I'm telling you ♪ ♪ Baby, this is a parade ♪ ♪ But I like it when you're nice ♪ ♪ Gonna love her more than it's the season of the sticks ♪ ♪ I'll shock your mom ♪ ♪ She forgot that I exist ♪ ♪ Needed to have my phone ♪ I look, Stella lefties later gave Noah Khan credit. There was another instance also when fans are kind of the way some concerns. She's end of giving credit to the chicks, where there's your trouble. After some kind of interpolation, that's on her debut album. Then this representative from her label at Lander Cracker said that in that instance, a stream platform error had actually left out the names of the original songwriters, like that's what the label is saying happened there. Fran, it's worth noting that as you become aware of the song, you know, Boston, before this controversy took shape, like what do you make of her music? Just responding to her. - I think it's all right. It's sort of not really capturing my attention as much as say like L.O.A. Lee's choosing Texas, which has been really inescapable and I think has really grown on me the more I've heard it, but I certainly heard Boston before I heard Stixie's in, and I thought Boston before you heard Stixie's in? - I know, can you believe it? - Fran said, "Miss me with Noah Khan." That's not in my business. - Okay. - Honestly, yes, that is exactly what I was saying. - Keep it in Vermont, just keep it in Vermont. - I was sort of like, what happens north of here has nothing to do with me. But I thought it was all right. The country pop sort of movement that's happening right now is kind of missing me in general as I sort of sink into like, slater and stuff like that. So it's not necessarily to my taste, but I thought it was sort of kind of perfectly inoffensive and fine to hear. - Okay, one. - What instances, two instances, that's something. Then there's more people sort of saying, you know what, he's got a bunch of songs, the sound like other songs. I do wanna play you guys this clip. This is another clip of her song, "7-Eleven," which sounds like teenage dirt bag by Weedus. Let us once again do the comparison thing. Let's hear this clip. ♪ He bars his strokes from seven eleven ♪ ♪ Smokes in my cork, but it's okay 'cause I let him ♪ There's something. That's right, sorry. ♪ I have a dream about her, she rings my bell ♪ ♪ I got you ♪ I was like, oh, should we play teenage dirt bag? I'm like, you know, you do need the reminder of a teenage dirt bag. Sounds like, I will note there is an extra drum beat after the first there on "7-Eleven." That sounds a lot like the beginning of "Teenage dirt bag." Friend, we haven't heard Stella address any of these claims. What do you make of that? What's going on there? - I think she's young. I think this album came out quickly. I think probably she was thinking something, a lot of young artists across many mediums think, which is I wanna do my version of this thing, whether it's conscious or not. - Okay. - And that's really sticky with copyright these days. - Joe, in terms of all of these comparisons, the idea that she's being called Stella Fifty, like when you hear that, obviously like we go, "Nepo baby," and then after that industry plant, and then Stella Fifty is like, how many accusations can one artist bear at this point? What do you make of all the conversation that ends up sort of clouding, I would say? The release of the sub. - I think, Frances, totally right. This is a super young artist. She was doing covers on YouTube very recently, including of "Stick Season" many times. - "Teenage dirt bag." - Yes. - "Teenage dirt bag." The closing track on this album has been cited for sounding like "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus. That's why wouldn't we, by Stella Lefty, "The Climb" another song she's covered? - The band. - "Living Concert." It really reminds me of what happened with Olivia Rodrigo on her album. There were songs that she gave credit preemptively on a head of time, and then there are songs after the fact that she was forced to add writing credits on, if you know, you know, we don't get it, but that whole rabbit hole right now. - Someone made a call. - Yes. - Yeah, but these are artists who are extremely big fans of pop music, and extremely reverent, and they only know what they know at the beginning of their career. Most people are able to work out their songs that sound exactly like their favorite artists before they get super famous, but not always, and especially young women in this age of pop who have some of their earliest songs blow up, and then the microscope is on them insanely. That said, this is an album made with, you know, J Cash, a huge pop producer. He executive produced this album, Julia Michaels, a big pop songwriter worked on this album. Like, this is a professional product. I think they probably knew, you know, that some of this was going to be a thing. The Noah Khan thing she has responded to. She said, I wasn't thinking of six season when I wrote it, but we got the call, and then we added the credit. You know, the Dixie Chicks interpolation, I think, was, came ahead of time. - Yeah. - And might see more writing credits added to this album as time goes on. But I think it just goes to show what kind of microscope she's under because of how fast this all happened. - There's also no denying for any of that. She's had a wild year in general. Like, she's done really some big festivals. She started consistently all summer. She just made her debut at the Grand Loppery, which many questions about that. But do you see style FD having the same kind of trajectory of a rising star as like a Gracie Abrams or a Chapel Roman like is that? Well, we're supposed to be brazing ourselves for here. I think maybe that's been a little hindered by the events of this past summer. But I don't think it should hold her back from making more music, or by trying more things out, or moving a little more slowly. Something I really respect about Chapel Rowan who had this quite meteoric rise is she's taken a long time to continue to work. - Yeah. - And I think the best thing that someone like Estella Lefty can do now is take a long time to work on more music, and really kind of hone down what and who she wants to sound like. That's a really good point to leave. I think we should leave it exactly there, because I think to me, I really appreciate the chapel's going like, "Oh, I need a minute to figure out who I am now "after getting 100,000 person crowds of all the pollution." Like, that is something that you gotta wrap your mind around. And I feel like I'm curious to see where Estella Lefty's career is gonna go from here. But in the meantime, I gotta say thank you to both of you coming on the show today. Thank you so much for doing this, y'all. - Thanks for having us. - Thank you. Really appreciate it. Dereco Scurali is a cultural reporter for The New York Times and co-host of The Times Podcast. Popcast, Fran Hoffner is a senior newswriter with Vulture and author of The Field Guide to NEPA Babies. She's also in New York. Estella Lefty has some upcoming tour dates in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. - Hey, it's Danielle and Kelly. Your hosts of IN3, Canada's number one entertainment news podcast. I've spent more time with Taylor Swift than most other people. We're media pros. We hosted the Varity Screening Besties, How We Has Become the Hottest Baxter Boy. Said no one but you ever, ever. And insiders who have seen it all, I-R-L. Oscar's Golden Globes. You name it. We have been there with access to the biggest talent. - Welcome to IN3 Patrick J. Adam. - Thank you for having me. - The fun starts in three. - You know who's not gonna survive this? - Dad, talk. - Oh. - New episodes, Mondays and Thursdays. (laughing) (upbeat music) - Hi, my name is Noem Mahmoud, and this is commotion. So, Earl Meets World is a new Netflix reality show. The series centers on social media, influencer Alex Earl and her family. And I just want to play you a little bit of the trailer. - There's such a different side of my life that people don't get to see. - Alex, don't bend down, I can see your bug crack. - My family is full of chaos. - Alex, don't bend down. I can see your bug crack. - Alex, stop. - We're the Nebo friend and the Nebo sister. - I'm side by side with someone who had an affair with my husband. - Do it all. - You don't forget what happened. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy the people that we love. - So, that's a bit of the trailer for the new reality series, Earl Meets World. The entire first season is out right now on Netflix. CT Dones is back on the show to talk about it. CT, good to see your friend, how's it going? - Oh, I'm so good. I'm so glad I'm here. Let's do this. - The way that you're beaming, you're like, let me add it. Let's do it. - Tell me people listening to going, I don't know who Alex Earl is. Do I really need to know about another social media influencer? How did she become so popular? Who is she? What's her deal? - Thank you so much for asking. Alex Earl is the quintessential girls, girls, influencer. She is kind of at the center of the Venn diagram of every tick talker that you can think of. There's a link, seven degrees of Kevin Bacon. No, seven degrees of Alex Earl. Okay, she started posting, get ready with me when she was a senior at the University of Miami. So imagine someone getting ready to go to parties and games painted by the harsh and unforgiving, flattering glow of a ring light and the beautiful dead-eyed stare of a blonde was very few worries in life. People saw these videos and they were like, perfect. Let's give her the world, her, her, actually. It was so inviting for people because of how approachable Earl was. You know, she's doing her makeup. She's talking about her acne. She's talking about which darts she's going to next and leaving clubs at 4 a.m. It's this beautiful combination of like, oh, this could be an every man sort of poster with very untouchable and kind of dream versions of life. Similar to the way that like you face time with a rich friend with like a house and Ibiza, you're like, this is not my truth. But like so fun to hear about your day. I'm closer to this truth and it's nice to be closer to this truth. I should also say, Alistair, not the only famous member of her family, do you want to talk about the other members of the Earl family and why they might be a little bit famous? Yeah, absolutely. So obviously her sister's Ashton is about have followed in her footsteps as creators. They post get ready with me OOTDs, that sort of thing. But what most people don't know is that Asht, Alex's stepmother is Ashley Dupree, who was the woman very famous for her role in New York governor Elliott Spitzer's escort scandal. And so this is kind of the quintessential not trauma, but chaos at the heart of how Alex Earl's new family, where she has a father and a stepmother and now three step siblings, really, this is where all of the drama sort of coalesces around. And you get a vehicle for this drama. And that vehicle is called Earl Meets World. How does Alex Earl sort of hold influence or persona? When you translate that to the reality show format, that doesn't always work. Does it translate in this case? Yeah, I think the persona is absolutely there. And what people have always said about Alex Earl is that the way she posts is probably the way she is in real life. Reality stars and social media creators are currently in this kind of never ending, like Laura Boris of Existence, where a show props up the online presence, but they got the show from the online presence, which helps them get another show to promote the online presence and so on and so forth. So the persona actually holds up really well. But you're watching, though, the really, I think the question that most people will have once they get to a first episode is, why am I here? And what's the answer to that? What is the central proposition of the show? Like, what is it offering you? The central proposition of the show is giving fans a glimpse of the real Alex. Someone who is not just a party girl who got famous for posting these get ready with me to go clubbing, but rather she's a business woman in an ongoing and kind of increasingly complicated creator space, which is a really, really interesting proposition. I think what destroys it is the nature of influence and kind of how up to speed people already are in the drama. And the show is very unclear about who the audience is. Is this for die hard Alex Earl fans or is this for someone who wants to click on their Netflix and go, was that blonde girl who looks kind of familiar? - Sure. But I will say that like Alex Earl's profile in the last little while has grown quite a bit because not only did she already have her already significant online following, but she had a bit of a feud with her former online boss, online boss, which is of course Alex Cooper, that it was an Alex versus Alex situation. Alex with an I versus Alex with an E. Alex Cooper of course, the host of Call Her Daddy. Like there was something about the way that those two were feuding quite publicly that felt like, okay, now you have an entry point into another central drama in this versus life. Do you get that also in the show? - Yeah, no, not at all. Sorry. - C.D. - That's why I wanted to be showing up in the first place. - You don't get it. The reason why there is drama is because Alex Earl was a part of Alex Cooper's unwell brand. She signed for a podcast and then was dropped. The public view that people are talking about is like three TikToks were one of them. Cooper was like, I'm not gonna talk about this right now, but you guys don't believe the news that I have. And Alex Earl was like, I'm not gonna delve into this. The drama could have been so much more. And the problem that we're having is when we bring an influencer into this format, is that the behind the scenes of her life and the drama that's explored has already happened. So anyone watching this show was like, this was six months ago and it doesn't add anything new. There's no insight. And so in a way, the reality show version of Alex Earl feels like it's lagging behind the Alex Earl that people have already loved and chosen in this fight. - But I will say like the obvious comparison point is the Kardashians, right? Because that does happen. - Absolutely. - You get the real life, you know, sort of big headlines. And then several months later, you get how that played out in real life for the Kardashians. I feel like people have been making the Kardashian comparison with the show with the Earl Meas world. Is there anything that Alice Earl and her family are doing that feels like to you that's like, oh, this is a different thing with this format. That is not a Kardashian like at all. - I don't really think so. And I think it's important when we mention the Kardashians to remember that the Kardashians did not have this level of public scrutiny on their life when the first seasons of the show aired, which allowed them to become reality stars because we have so many fabulous moments from the first seasons of the Kardashians where your jaws open, you're like, I can't believe they let a camera capture that. The sisters were slapping each other, left and right. They're like printing out their mug shots. That's TV. - Kim, there's people that are dying, you know, yes. 100%. - Yeah, there's people that are dying. I don't care that your diamond airing is lost in the Maldives. And then the problem with Earl Meats world is that because Alex Earl is already a creator with a profile, what's clear here is that she's not willing to do anything to jeopardize that even if it means for views. This is also a good example of people talking about the secret lives of Mormon wives, right? They were not household names when they started that show, which is why they can be crazy about dirty soda and the fact that their husbands are probably gay. Alex Earl has got to be co-white and it makes for not compelling TV. - C.T. Jones, I love it or appreciate your time. You are the best. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, friend. - Thank you so much for having me. - Of course, C.T. Jones writes about the internet and pop culture for Rolling Stone. They just publish an incredible profile in this Rachel. You should go find that at Rollingstone.com. C.T. Jones is based in New York and you can stream the entire first season of Earl Meats World right now on Netflix. That is it for the show today. My name is Elemin Abdel-Mahmoud. This show's called Commotion. We'll be back tomorrow. We'd love to see you then. Have a good day. (upbeat music) - For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca/podcasts.