Lavigne ‘stole our song from 1970s’

US singer Avril Lavigne is being sued by members of a 1970s rock band who claim her hit song Girlfriend rips off one of their tunes.

Songwriters Tommy Dunbar and James Gangwer alleged in a lawsuit that Ms Lavigne and her co-writers lifted their 1979 song I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, which was originally performed by new wave band The Rubinoos.

“We are not so naive as to chalk it up to some sort of cosmic coincidence,” Mr Dunbar said in a statement. “The lyric, the meter, the rhythm — they’re identical.”