NewJeans & ADOR facing plagiarism lawsuit for top line and melody in 'How Sweet'

According to Billboard on May 8 EST, four songwriters have filed a lawsuit with the U.S. court against NewJeans and ADOR for suspicions of plagiarism in the 2024 track "How Sweet". 

The four songwriters (identified as Audrey Armacost, Aidan Rodriguez, Adam Gokcebay, and Michael Campanelli) claimed that they received "an instrumental track by [their] publisher in January 2024 and [were] invited to submit top line lyrics and melody for consideration by NewJeans," wrote Billboard. 

The writers then submitted a song titled "One of a Kind" to NewJeans, but were notified that their track was not selected. However, they are now claiming that the first verse of "How Sweet" contains considerable similarities to "One of a Kind". 

Through the lawsuit, the songwriters are pursuing recognition as contributors of "How Sweet" as well as a cut of the royalties. 

Meanwhile, NewJeans have been inactive since 2024 as a result of their contractual dispute against ADOR and parent company HYBE Labels. The dispute seemingly ended in October of last year, when the court ruled in favor of ADOR by finding the exclusive contract between the artists and the label to be valid. Since then, Haerin, Hyein, and Hanni have returned to ADOR, while Danielle's exclusive contract was terminated. Minji is still "discussing her future activities" with the company, ADOR said as recently as May 7 KST.