On February 21, Olivia Marsh, the sister of NewJeans (NJZ) Danielle, revealed the official MV for the track “Backseat” from her 1st EP “Meanwhile”. However, immediately after the song’s release, singer-songwriter Isaac Dunbar claimed that “Backseat” has the exact same instrument as his old song, “Onion Boy”.
However, the producing credits for “Backseat” did not include Isaac, leading to claims that Olivia Marsh stole Isaac’s song credits. In response, some fans tried to justify the situation, giving the explanation that Isaac released “Onion Boy” under RCA, which owns the rights to the song and cataloged it for sampling. Therefore, Olivia likely purchased the sample and used it legally.
As the situation blew up, the agency of Olivia published an official statement that they are aware of the plagiarism situation, adding that they are “conducting a thorough review of the situation”.
Meanwhile, Isaac also updated his SNS, saying that “everything is being handled behind the scenes” and adding that he has “no ill feelings towards anyone”, even those defending Olivia.
In the end, it seems that the two sides have managed to reach an agreement, and Olivia published an apology regarding the situation, saying, “I feel responsible for not checking more thoroughly before releasing the song. I do not wish for anyone to get hurt. We are working to resolve this situation as soon as possible. Thank you all for being so patient. Love you all!”
To this, Isaac also positively responded, “Everything’s good it’s all love”.
The female singer also updated her Instagram story, which shows her apologizing to Isaac directly. Here, it was revealed that she had no idea about the similarity when she received the beat. In return, Isaac also apologized for the backlash Olivia received, stating that his intention was simply to “those who recreated the stems of ‘onion boy’”.
On the other hand, Danielle recently showed support for her sister at the latter’s listening party, even singing “Ditto” at the event.