Country singer Stella Lefty faces fresh plagiarism accusations after listeners noted strong similarities between her song "Why Wouldn't We" and Blake Shelton's 2017 hit "I'll Name the Dogs." Both tracks share comparable choruses and near-identical subject matter, with each depicting a couple dividing up hypothetical future responsibilities together. The controversy adds to a pattern of copying claims that have dogged the 24-year-old since her breakout, raising questions about originality on her newly released debut album.

"Why Wouldn't We" appears on Lefty's debut record, Long Way Home, released on 21 August, and credits Lefty alongside Emily Weisband, Grady Block and Steph Jones, with none of Shelton's original writers included. Shelton's song, written by Matt Dragstrem, Ben Hayslip and Josh Thompson, won Song of the Year at the inaugural Nashville Songwriter Awards in 2018. This follows earlier disputes over her hit "Boston", which drew comparisons to Noah Kahan's "Stick Season" and later credited him as a writer, and "Summer You Were Mine", which interpolates The Chicks' "There's Your Trouble" and initially omitted its original songwriters from streaming credits before Atlantic Records corrected the error. None of the parties involved with "I'll Name the Dogs" have yet commented, and the row comes as Lefty prepares for an extensive North American and Australian tour ahead of her "Long Way Home Tour" next year.