Austin wrote "Steal Your Heart" with another songwriter
Hi everyone! I grew up with Austin & Ally and recently rewatched it for like the millionth time. There's one tiny thing from the show that has always bothered me, and I finally have a theory about it. I have to get this off my chest, it's been bothering me for YEARS!
In Season 2, Episode 25, “Real Life & Reel Life”, Austin admits to Ally that he met up with another songwriter because he needed a song and Ally was busy. As a little girl, I always wondered, WHAT SONG?!
And now I have a theory... I think the song he wrote with that other songwriter was “Steal Your Heart".
Hear me out.
First, Austin is known for not being able to write songs by himself. It's mentioned multiple times throughout the show. But suddenly, he's able to write a huge hit ALL BY HIMSELF???
Season 2, Episode 19, “Tunes & Trials":
At the beginning of the episode, Austin and Ally write the tune for “Steal Your Heart”, but they don't have lyrics yet. Ally encourages Austin to write the lyrics himself. Austin even says that the last time he tried writing a song, it was a total disaster (I'm assuming this is referring to the Pioneer Ranger song). Then Ally gives Austin a songwriting book to write the lyrics in (remember that.)
A few days later, Austin comes back and says he finished the song. Trish even says “You wrote a song by yourself? Let me save you some trouble, it's not very good.” And then it cuts to them dancing to one of the best songs in the entire series. Be so fr, Austin. You did NOT write that.
Then we get to the trial.
Ally tells Austin to show the judge his songwriting book as proof that he wrote the song. Ally flips through it... shocker, books empty. Austin then claims that he wrote the lyrics on a napkin. And conveniently, that napkin is in the same pair of pants he's wearing at that exact moment. But then the napkin falls apart because the pants had been washed. So we never actually see any evidence that Austin wrote the lyrics himself.
And here's where my theory comes in.
A few episodes later, in “Real Life & Reel Life”, Austin tells Ally that when she was busy, he met up with another songwriter because he needed a song. (In the beginning of "Tunes & Trials" Ally tells Val that she can't write a song for her cause she's too busy working on music for her and Austin, so we now she got shit to do. Also, I know it's just cause she didn't want to work with Val)
Looking back at Season 2, I can't think of another song that fits. “Steal Your Heart” is one of the only songs where Austin is explicitly shown and said to have written it without Ally.
Obviously, the show never confirms this**.** It's entirely possible that the writers intended the mystery songwriter to have worked on some completely different song that we never heard about. Maybe Austin met someone off-screen and the song was never important enough to show us.
Maybe I'm completely overthinking a Disney Channel sitcom from the 2010s, but I've been thinking about this for YEARS and I genuinely haven't seen anyone discuss it.
Please feel free to tell me I'm wrong! Maybe I misremembered something, or there's another episode/song that completely destroys this theory. I'd actually love to know.
And if you have any other Austin & Ally theories, related or unrelated, PLEASE share them. I need to know what everyone else has been thinking about for the past decade.