Ava Max Reflects on Why People Are Calling Her 'Queen of Samples'

Rising pop star Ava Max has recently opened up about the criticism she receives for sampling other tracks and beats on most of her songs.

Despite being a well-known name in the music scene since her signing to Atlantic Records in 2016, she has been poked fun at for her creative style.

Ava Max Reacts to Being Hailed As Queen of Samples

Speaking to ETalk by CTV, Ava Max has finally opened up about the criticism she receives online about her sampling other tracks to create most of her music.

"It's actually interesting because I know a lot of artists do samples but they always poke at me about the samples like if you look some other people's discographies, you're like 'woah'. They have way more samples than Ava but I think they you know..I think the internet likes to poke at Ava Max," she shared.

She then defends the way she samples songs and their resulting output.

"That's why they like cause not every song is a sample and also, when I do a sample, I do it tastefully," she added.

Meanwhile, some fans on Reddit aired their frustrations on Max's reaction.

"The thing is that most of these artists create something interesting, fun and new with the sample and layer it with new sounds. They put a fun, fresh & cool twist on it. Ava just keeps reusing some of the most popular songs and barely doing anything new with it. She's completely boring, stale & has like -10 charisma," a user pointed out.

Another commented, "She's literally sampling some of the biggest songs of the last decade, not just some notes but half of the song."

Songs That Ava Max Sampled

According to Pop Crush, Max has sampled quite a lot of old songs from the past.

In 2024, her collaboration with Kygo sampled Shakira's "Whenever, Wherever" for her song "Whatever."

For her 2023 single "Million Dollar Baby," she sampled LeAnne Rhimes' 2000 song "Can't Fight the Moonlight" from the film "Coyote Ugly."

Most notably, some fans criticized Max for releasing "Choose Your Fighter" for the Barbie soundtrack, which sounded like her own song "Kings & Queens."

The song "Kings & Queens" itself sampled Bonnie Tyler's 1986 pop-rock anthem "If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)."

In 2018, she also sampled Aqua's "Barbie Girl" for her song "Not Your Barbie Girl," which has become a hit on TikTok.