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Popular funk and R&B guitarist Giacomo Turra has found himself in the middle of a plagiarism scandal with multiple artists coming forward to claim that he has stolen their work. Turra is an instrumentalist, music producer, and social media content creator who gained popularity with videos of him playing the guitar on Instagram during the pandemic.
The series of accusations against Turra began on April 5, 2025, with YouTuber Danny Sapko's video titled "I caught this famous Instagram musician STEALING songs." In the video, Sapko said:
"From the very start of his social media rise, Giacomo has been using other people's compositions, not properly crediting the artists, passing them off as his own, and selling tabs and isolated tracks on his website."
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Then, the YouTuber proceeded to showcase a side-by-side comparison of the similarities that Turra's Instagram guitar videos had with those of other artists. Additionally, the description of Sapko's video consists of the YouTube channels of the artists from whom the YouTuber claims Turra stole.
Some of these artists whom Turra has allegedly stolen songs from include Alex Hutchings, Travis Dykes, Jack Gardiner, Thiago Gomes, and more. The YouTuber shared that his investigation into Turra's plagiarism began after he received a comment from a netizen shedding light on the guitarist's plagiarizing habit.
Giacomo Turra's plagiarism scandal also claims that the guitarist credited the musicians he stole from only if he was caught. Moreover, the credit would be buried in the video description instead of upfront. After his first video amassed attention, Danny Sapko posted a follow-up video on April 9, 2025, featuring a small boutique custom guitar builder's claim.
The boutique customized a $25,000 guitar for Giacomo Turra in exchange for multiple promotional videos. However, the guitarist only did one video with the instrument post, following which the builder reportedly realized that Turra had sold the guitar. The guitar builder then asked Turra to donate money to a charity from the sale of the guitar, and despite promising to do so, he never did.
What did Giacomo Turra say after being exposed in plagiarism scandal? Details explored
After Danny Sapko's video, several artists accused Giacomo Turra of stealing their work. This resulted in the guitarist posting a now-deleted apology, specifically referring to accusations of plagiarizing Jack Gardiner's solo to Luther Vandross' Never Too Much in 2021, stating:
“Since that thing with Jack Gardiner happened, I have always been really attentive to credit this artist but apparently this credit must have not been evident enough. I really want to apologize to the guitar community for this behavior.”
Moreover, Jack Gardiner reflected on the allegations against Turra and told Guitar World in a report dated April 10, 2025:
“I just hope Giacomo can learn from this and go back to loving music and guitar in the future. Rebuild and keep playing music, build your own vocabulary, but make sure you do it the right way next time, without stealing a living from other musicians' hard work.”
Since the accusations of plagiarizing music have been leveled against Giacomo Turra, several artists like Ernie Ball and Andertons have removed videos with the guitarist from their YouTube channels. Additionally, D'Angelico Guitars has also removed Turra's presence from their website by taking down his artist page.
