Madison Beer has addressed comparisons between her 2021 song Reckless and Olivia Rodrigo’s new track Honeybee, following fan accusations that Rodrigo copied another song of Beer in a recently teased track. The 27-year-old singer-songwriter backed Rodrigo by saying, “It’s a very common chord progression, like truth be told.”
Madison Beer reacts publicly as comparisons between her work and Olivia Rodrigo’s grow
During a Q&A in Phoenix, Madison Beer was asked about online comparisons between Olivia Rodrigo’s music and that of other artists. She said the similarities likely come from a common chord progression used in many songs over the years.
Beer, who rose to fame in 2012 at age 13 after Justin Bieber shared her YouTube cover of Etta James’ At Last, responded, “I don’t want to say that because I’m like, I only heard a 15-second snippet. Like I want to hear the whole song, you know?”
“I feel like the chords maybe are similar. But honestly, that chord progression has been used a billion times,” she explained, adding, “Like even when ‘Reckless’ came out, people were like, ‘This sounds like this, this sounds like that.’ I’m like, guys, it’s a very common chord progression, like truth be told. But the reason it’s used a lot is that it’s really good.”
Many fans supported Beer’s comments, saying she highlighted a common misunderstanding about chord progressions, which cannot be owned and often appear across many songs, making tracks sound similar without being copied. One of them wrote, “LITERALLY. People forget that there are artists who use the same chord progressions all the time!!! There’s literally a video that shows how many hits of the last century were constructed with the same chord progression.”
Rodrigo’s song Honeybee, from her third studio album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, was released on June 12, 2026, reports Billboard. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 485,000 equivalent album units, marking the biggest opening week of 2026 for a solo artist.
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