Amanda Lear, 78, has publicly accused Miley Cyrus, 32, of copying her 1978 song on a new album track.
The French disco legend took to Instagram on Sunday to call out Cyrus over “REDLIGHTS,” a song from the “Wrecking Ball” singer’s ten-track album *Bass Persuades*, which dropped last Friday. Lear, whose 1970s hits include “Follow Me” and “Queen of Chinatown,” shared a photo of Cyrus’ album cover alongside a pointed message about the alleged similarity to her own track “The Sphinx.”
“Thank You Miley for copying my song The Sphinx, I am flattered,” Lear wrote on Instagram.
Cyrus has not directly responded to Lear’s accusation. However, she had previously expressed enthusiasm about the track in question, calling it one of her personal favorites among her extensive catalog.
“REDLIGHTS is one of my favorite records I’ve released to date,” she wrote online. “It’s got my favorite ingredients both heartbreaking and euphoric. Love being torn.”
The social media post from Lear quickly drew a wave of defensive comments from Cyrus’ fanbase. Several followers pushed back against the veteran performer’s claim, questioning both the validity of the comparison and her motivations for raising it publicly.
“Your song is pushing 50 and you’re on instagram fighting with miley cyrus over it???,” one commenter wrote to Lear. “Artists have sampled and interpolated older music FOREVER. If anything be happy people are even talking about your song again.”
Another dismissed the similarity entirely, posting: “It’s not even similar lol…. Trying to get attention huh!?”
A third commenter simply insisted that the two songs are “not even similar.”
The brewing dispute arrives as Cyrus already faces legal scrutiny over another of her biggest recent hits. In 2024, Tempo Music Investments sued the former Disney Channel star and her co-writers, alleging that her Grammy Award-winning single “Flowers” had copied elements from Bruno Mars’ 2013 ballad “When I Was Your Man.” The lawsuit claimed the blockbuster track would “not exist” without having “exploited numerous melodic, harmonic and lyrical elements” from Mars’ song, specifically citing “the melodic pitch design and sequence of the verse, the connecting bass-line, certain bars of the chorus, certain theatrical music elements, lyric elements, and specific chord progressions.”
Cyrus’ attorneys have denied any copyright infringement and moved to have the case dismissed. In May, her legal team requested summary judgment, asking a judge to determine whether Tempo possesses sufficient legally viable material to warrant a jury trial. Arguments were heard earlier this year, though no ruling has been issued.
Lear built her career across five decades as a singer, painter, and television personality, emerging from the European disco scene with a string of charting singles in the late 1970s. “The Sphinx,” released in 1978, came during her peak commercial period, though it did not achieve the same mainstream recognition as “Follow Me” or “Queen of Chinatown.”
Cyrus, who transitioned from teen television stardom to pop provocateur and then to a more rock-oriented sound, has described *Bass Persuades* as a project blending emotional extremes. Her promotional comments about “REDLIGHTS” emphasized its dual nature, pairing despair with uplift in what she framed as a signature creative approach.
The album marks her latest full-length release since 2023’s *Endless Summer Vacation*, which spawned the record-breaking single “Flowers” and its attendant legal complications.
Neither Cyrus nor her representatives have issued a statement addressing Lear’s Instagram post as of Monday.