Did Taylor Swift recycle a song by Jonas Brothers? Fans sure think so. Swift’s latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, has been scrutinized ever since its release, with Swifties and Internet sleuths dissecting every single thing they can.
Now, fans are pointing out how the song, The Life of a Showgirl ft. Sabrina Carpenter sounds a lot like Jonas Brothers’ Cool. The song was released in 2019 as the second single of their album, Happiness Begins.
The band of brothers sing, “Lately, I’ve been feelin’ so cool (cool) / Top to the bottom, just cool (cool) / Every little thing that I do (do) / Dammit, I feel so cool.“
On the other hand, Swift’s song goes like, “Hеy, thank you for the lovely bouquet / You’re sweeter than a peach / But you don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe / And you’re never, ever gonna.“
While the lyrics couldn’t be more different from each other, these parts of the two songs just sound the same. Be the judge yourself.
Am I going crazy or does life of a showgirl sound a lot like cool by the Jonas brothers 😭😭⁉️⁉️ pic.twitter.com/yLLwF0JIVx
Cool and The Life of a Showgirl sound way too similar for it to be a coincidence, and while artists take inspiration from other artists all the time, a credit is usually given. Unfortunately, it isn’t the case here.
As per Glamour, Genius mentioned the Jonas Brothers under “The Life of a Showgirl Interpolations” on their website, and an interpolation usually requires permission from the original artist. However, if you go check out Genius right now, you’ll find that the credit has been removed.
What Was Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo’s Alleged Feud About?
As listeners call out the billion-dollar worth singer for ripping off the Jonas Brothers, people are pointing out the irony of the situation, taking a trip down memory lane to the singer’s controversy involving Olivia Rodrigo.
Rodrigo has been a Swiftie since she can remember, and she has always been vocal about her love for the singer, especially Cruel Summer.
TAYLOR SWIFT POSTED A VIDEO OF ME SINGING CRUEL SUMMER ON HER INSTAGRAM STORY. I WILL NEVER STOP SCREAMING.
Talking to Rolling Stone about her song, Deja Vu, Rodrigo opened up about how the Lover hit inspired her bridge.
She said, “But I wanted the last bridge to go crazy and I love ‘Cruel Summer’; it’s one of my favorite songs ever. I love the yell-y vocals in it—like, the harmonized yells that she does. I feel like they’re super electric and moving, and so I wanted to do something like that.“
Eventually, Swift and Jack Antonoff were given co-writing credits on Deju Vu due to the similarities. This started a snowball effect, causing Rodrigo to give credit to Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Josh Farro for Good 4 U after fans compared it to the band’s Misery Business. As per Billboard, Rodrigo had to give up 50% of the royalties, resulting in a loss of millions of dollars.
Talking to Teen Vogue about the controversy, Rodrigo said,
I just feel like sometimes there’s so much noise and criticism and weird things going on in the world. I hope people know that deep down, all that I do is write songs and talk about how I feel, and that’s the most important thing to me. Everything else, I think, is not so important.
Now, people are calling out Swift for doing to Jonas Brothers exactly what she fought Rodrigo for, especially when the latter was fairly new to the industry.
Also the fact that she was a rising artist during that time like that was just her SECOND single…
and also she was only 17/18 and graduating hs she didn’t know anything about the legal side of things
i need the jonas brothers to pull a reverse card in the name of olivia rodrigo for this chopped song pic.twitter.com/NutJVvSoWk
Is it all just a big coincidence, or was it the plan all along? Do let us know your thoughts on this in the comments section below.
The Life of a Showgirl Includes Another Interpolation of a Past Hit
While listening to The Life of a Showgirl, you might have gotten a bit of “Deja Vu” during Track No. 04, Father Figure. The song is thought to be written from the perspective of Swift’s former business partner and the CEO of her former label, Big Machine Records – Scott Borchetta. Read more about it here.
If you take a look at the song’s writing credits, you’ll realize that the late pop culture icon, George Michael, is credited as one of the song’s writers, along with Swift, Max Martin, and Shellback.
This is because the song contains an interpolation of Michael’s 1987 song, Father Figure, which was released as a part of his debut studio album, Faith. Clearly, Swift’s team was quick to give Michael credit here, in contradiction to what allegedly happened with Cool and The Life of a Showgirl.
In fact, Michael’s estate was more than happy to give Swift the required permissions as they believe it is something the late singer would have wanted. Check out their official statement below:
A post shared by George Michael (@georgemofficial)
At the end of the day, the music industry has always thrived on inspiration and reinvention. However, when it comes to the latest controversy in Swift’s professional life, the Internet seems to be a bit unforgiving, especially given what happened between the Honey singer and Rodrigo.
What do you think? Did Swift borrow a little too much from the Jonas Brothers? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below.
Stream The Life of a Showgirl on any major platform.
