As the bookies slash Dina Garipova’s odds to win the first semi-final at Eurovision, Team Wiwi can only scratch their heads. This song is cheesier than fondue and much less filling. But our main objection isn’t its “we are the world” staging. It’s that this song blatantly rips off Brian Kennedy’s song “All Over the World” both in terms of melody and lyrical content. We’ve remained silent for several weeks, but the oddsmakers have pushed us over the edge. We’re happy that Russia is looking West, but we’d rather they steal ideas like democracy…not melodies from Ireland’s 2006 Eurosong contest! Let’s compare.
Dina’s Eurovision song “What If”:
Brian Kennedy’s 2006 Eurosong entry “All Over the World”:
The following compilation compares “What If” to a series of songs, including Britney Spear’s “Born to Make You Happy” and Sarah Connor’s “Skin on Skin”. It’s hilar. But also kind of sad.
What do you think? Are people crazy to be comparing “What If” to these older songs? Or is something there? Should a song so familiar be allowed at Eurovision? Do you think that the EBU should have stepped in when all of this nonsense came to their attention? Let us know!
Photo credit: Dennis Stachel (EBU)
You can read our song reviews on the Wiwi Jury page. Then read the lyrics to this year’s entries on our contestants page. And then vote for your favourite contestants in our various polls.
Last year Serbia plagiated Coldplay’s song “Paradise” , it was so obvious, so many people said that, still nothing happened, not even a word from you.
Personally I found parts of it to be very similar to the Celine Dion song “Taking Chances” particularly the start of the chorus in both.
It is actually from Hear’Say “Carried away” and Gosia Andrzejewicz “Pozwól ?yc”. It is all over the internet and you can check it on youtube. The melodies taken from two songs and the song is ready.
On first listen I was like: Sarah Connor’s “Skin on Skin”.
But now… Not so much. :/
Yes – the clips sound like each other – and there are other comparisons I have heard on Youtube too – but – we could probably do short comparisons with other songs in the competition as well. The song has been accepted – let’s get on with the show.
the dude is right…sounds all to familiar
The plagiarism case is not proved at all by these excerpts…..”What If” sounds very different. The song has a good melody and VERY GOOD vocals…it’s the bad dress and the naïve lyrics that let it down. It will be in the top 5 on sat though….
malta best song there is this year europe you should vote for it 🙂
First Germany and now Russia. Are we going to drag Malta into the mix next, for using a ukulele featured in Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister”?
Well cerenly you can find parts of each song,but it is more usuall when pop music is the case.Dina’ s song,reminds me more of some ABBA style we alredy heard many ,many times.I think Moje 3 from Serbia has the most original pop song,no one find any similarities and that is very difficult when we speak about pop music,to be original.
The time to discuss plagiarism has come and gone. There are numerous songs that sound like something else and no action has been taken against them by the EBU so far, while others have been ruled safe. I wonder if one of them wins, if there will be a protest. Let’s hope so.
I dunno. I’ve heard other songs that sound way more alike then the comparisons your providing. They lyrics are completely different, so no copying there. The music is sorta similar.
One song that when I heard the first time, I swore I heard it before, but because it was sung in a foreign language it was difficult to identify. Finally it dawned on me that what I was listening to was the Beatles song, “Let It Be”. That song being the one sung by Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson’s, “Ég á Líf”.