Stella Lefty’s “Summer You Were Mine” Adds Chicks Songwriters After Release

Stella Lefty’s debut album Long Way Home arrived August 21st with a familiar melodic turn on “Summer You Were Mine.” The track borrows from The Chicks’ 1998 hit “There’s Your Trouble,” and listeners noticed before the songwriting credits did. Songwriters Tia Sillers and the late Mark Selby, who wrote the original, were initially absent from streaming metadata. Atlantic Records says that was a platform error: Lefty’s team had secured clearance from Sony Publishing in June, and internal documents listed Sillers and Selby before release. Their names have since been added.

The distinction matters in copyright. Lefty did not use a sample from The Chicks’ recording; the new song recreates recognizable elements of the melody and song itself. Permission is still required, and Sillers told Rolling Stone she hopes Lefty’s listeners might trace the line back to The Chicks, whose original on Wide Open Spaces won a Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

For Lefty, the timing sharpens the story. Her breakout single “Boston” drew comparisons to Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season,” and Kahan was added as a songwriter before official release. Lefty told Vanity Fair she wasn’t thinking about Kahan while writing. Resurfaced TikTok clips of her covering “Stick Season” and calling Kahan a favorite artist have made that explanation harder to separate from the pattern. Lefty’s rapid ascent has already drawn nepo-baby and industry-plant chatter, given that she is the daughter of Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky. That context doesn’t change the copyright mechanics, but it raises the stakes on questions of access and permission.