Dutch news outlet NOS is making waves in the social media today asking the question: “Danish plagiarism at Eurovision?”, pointing at the similarities between Emmelie de Forest’s winning song “Only Teardrops” and a 2002 song by Dutch band K-Otic, “I Surrender”.

You can perhaps spot the similarities better on this side-by-side video:

Dutch newspaper “Telegraaf” quotes Eric van Tijn, Dutch producer and talent show judge, who says that: “Eurovision songs should be new compositions. The [flute] melody is clearly one-on-one, that is undeniable. Still, I think it a storm in a glass of water, because it is only similar in the intro.”

We are not music experts ourselves and we won’t claim that “Only Teardrops” is plagiarized after the Dutch track, although we cannot ignore the similarities between the two songs. What do you think, did the Danish composers rip off “I Surrender”? Or are these waves made really in a glass of water? Sound off below!

Update: Bart Voncken, former member of K-Otic, told Dutch radio 3FM, quoted by NOS: “I didn’t notice [the similarity] yesterday. Some notes overlap, but not enough to think plagiarism.”

Update 2: Sietse Bakker from the EBU is quoted by RTL.nl as saying that “There is a difference between plagiarism and songs that sound similar. Such claims are made every year. From my experience, the conclusion always is that the songs sound alike, but it’s not plagiarism.” He added, however: “The original songwriters have to go to court, which must determine whether there is plagiarism [or not].”

The plot thickens! We’ll let you know what happens next.

Bogdan Honciuc is a Romania-based correspondent for WiwiBloggs.com.
Photo credit: Sander Hesterman (EBU).

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Natalie
10 years ago

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Tanner
Tanner
10 years ago

I do not understand what people mean by “all songs are similar to each other”. Heck we even had a new genre of music invented this year: dubstep opera (see Romania’s performance)! I mean obviously there were very original entries!

adam6805
adam6805
10 years ago

SHAME ON DENMARK!!!
Many talented, hard-working and honest people cannot reach a good place on Eurovision, just due to some others who pay their way to the top. A LOT OF CORRUPTION ON EUROVISION CONTEST! Please see: http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=87553&_t=eurovision_organisers_respond_to_media_reports_on_voting&reaction_id=1483652#reaction_1483652

fira
10 years ago

this is a same music but teardrops is better

Piksey
Piksey
10 years ago

‘There is a difference between plagiarism and songs that sound similar.’ Indeed, i totally agree with S. Bakker. The songs sound a bit alike, but it’s not plagiarism. Some people are just too dumb to understand certain things.
Hey, if you do not know what does ‘plagiarism’ mean, check it on f.e. wikipedia before making moronic conclusions and embarrass yourself.

Dick Vos
Dick Vos
10 years ago

The only similarity between the two very different songs is that both songs include the whistle and drums and have an Irish feel.. so what??
Strange what happens if one person begins saying “Emmelie’s song reminds me of that K-otic song” how in few hours loads of spammers on her facebook page repeat the link to that song..

lee gilford
lee gilford
10 years ago

OMG! So, they stole the melody from the Dutch, and the “design” of combination of tin whistle & drums and the stage performance from Lane Moje, Serbian entry from (I think) 2005. The result: Not bad. Good bye, originality and creativity! 🙂

Gonçalo
10 years ago

@Konrad don’t be racista at the poit of saying that “Rak Bishvilo” wasn’t good, it was amazeballs! If it didn’t pass to the final, i blame people like you, racista and that only care with politics and stuff like that, Eurovision is music, and stop worring about who lives where.

Rachel
Rachel
10 years ago

DUTCH PRESS: WHY ARE WE SO BUTTHURT?

Konrad
Konrad
10 years ago

The winner is Denmark. Emmelie is a beautiful pagan girl who represents all of us Northern Europeans. It is a fantastic song sung by a gorgeous forest fairy.
Es war sehr gut!

Konrad
Konrad
10 years ago

Can someone please tell me why ISRAEL was in a music competition for EUROPE?

Who are they trying to kid? Their entry was crap. Plus, they should enter competitions in their own place, the middle east. Lets see how friendly their neighbours will be towards them.

MOON-FLOWER
10 years ago

A
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A
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Tom
Tom
10 years ago

If you compare songs like that then everything would seem plagiarised. From what I can hear there the songs are quite different and nowhere near close enough to be plagiarised. You could find a song that sounds similar to all the Eurovision songs. Trying to take anything away from Denmark’s performance is disgraceful. They did a great job and were far and away the best act.

Toma
10 years ago

I’m pretty sure that Denmark Eurovision team was so desperate last year after not so good result at Baku, so they were listening to a tons of songs, and combined them into Only Teardrops, just to win.. They have absolutely no competition spirit, they were just so greedy to do anything just to win.. Yes, there is a big similarity between this song and Only Teardrops… The intro, the chord progression, and they both give me the same “vibe”.. At least they could find the girl who could actually SING, and then maybe their victory wouldn’t be so miserable, like… Read more »

Just Sayin
Just Sayin
10 years ago

K-Otic gets a ton of publicity out of this, so they should be happy. Let the listeners decide–support the artist who does the best “version”.

Aygun
Aygun
10 years ago

@Nikki: Ay Nikki sene ne olub? Azerbaijani niye gözden salirsan? Ingilis dilinde yaza bilmirsen niye özuve el gatmisan? Sene bu lazimdi? Sil yazdigin commentlerivu sen Allah. bizi biyabir eleme.

kostis
kostis
10 years ago

i think that the song of Denmark has a copy on the bit

Jack
Jack
10 years ago

haters gonna hate

Lydia
Lydia
10 years ago

If the song hadn’t won, would anybody notice? K-otic definitely not. It’s a cute song, they won, that’s the end of it.

Vlad
Vlad
10 years ago

*winner – sorry about the mistake!

Vlad
Vlad
10 years ago

I don’t really like the Danish song, but trying to poison Emmelie’s victory is disgusting. She received most of the votes and she’s the winer – just deal with it.

eriberri
eriberri
10 years ago

I really loved the beautiful combination of tin whistle & drums in Denmark’s song (and in the performance, how Emmelie slowly walked around tin whistle boy, looking into his face as she sung to him – it just gave it such an old-world romanticism) – I’ve been humming & singing it ever since – so I find it especially sad that it’s turned out to be such a blatant rip-off of K-Otic’s song. Sigh. Where’s the originality, people?!

Inge
Inge
10 years ago

Can people please stop saying we did this because we are jealous? Emmelie was one of my favourites. I could not have been happier with the results. And the Dutch persons reacting on this post are among the ones who say that this is not plagiarism.

Besides that, the NOS is probably the best tabloid we have here. The NOS only posted this because it is news, and they remain objective. There even is a question mark in the title of the article – meaning that it are only rumours.

Marina
Marina
10 years ago

The similarities are obvious when you just listen to it but I know that the law in some countries states that 6 notes on a sequence is the maximum limit for the song to be acceptable-anything more than that can take you to the court. I think the song has 3-4 notes that are the same with “I surrender” so technically she can’t be accused of copying the song even though the similarities are obviously “audible”.

Drake
Drake
10 years ago

Shame on you Emmelie. You disappointed me. it is called stealing…

Anthony
Anthony
10 years ago

In all forms of art this would be considered appropriation. Although I agree there are similarities but that is the case with a lot of the entries this year, you could compare Malta’s entry to a Jason Mraz song. I could go on and on but it will just cement the fact that it is not plagiarism.

Jai
Jai
10 years ago

The winner song is the copy of another danish song called “Geronimo” by Aura Dione

Ian
Ian
10 years ago

Fair dinkum – get over it! No evidence of plagarism at all..

Goor
Goor
10 years ago

Yes, “inspiration”. they were also “inspired” by what Ireland sent the entire decade of 1990s… there was nothing original about that song.

Mark Dowd
Mark Dowd
10 years ago

Desperate tactics to try and steal from Denmark what is theirs……sour grapes!! Give us a break……

COPENHAGEN 2014!!!

Alexa
Alexa
10 years ago

It should be treated as plagiarism. If, for example, one writes a thesis and “draws inspiration” from another thesis – meaning, if one simply rearranges the word order a little bit, but keeps the original message or idea, or if one paraphrases another text, it is considered plagiarism. Why should it not be the same with music? Regardless of whether the speed of the notes differs a little (as some of you say), it is so obvious that the intro is identical. Also, Emmelie´s part “How many times do I have to… bla-bla” is definitely “inspired” by parts of this… Read more »

nikki
10 years ago

if you want make so many ridiculous video but it is not change the true Farid is the best and everybody say that

Diesel Flynn
Diesel Flynn
10 years ago

Plagiarism? No. The intro is quite similar, but that’s it.

@Joey: the one who is overreacting is you, by accusing the Dutch of being jealous haters. This is just some fuss from a Dutch tabloid, nothing more. Just like this article says: a storm in a glass of water.

nikki
10 years ago

Farid was just perfect and he has great vocal, great song and perfect ghareography. he is so handsome, we need’t such stupid things

nikki
10 years ago

may be there was somebody and paid for it, but it is not that azerbaijan buy all point, and may be others countries somebody paid for own countries votes, there are may be many stupid people but it is not azerbaijan or denmark buy all votes. i said that this video is making as ridiculous because this video is so stupid. Azerbaijan never buy votes and azerbaijan government to but everywhere is have stupid people but it’s not only azerbaijans. every year who win eurovision there was negative comments and 2 place and 3 place to i think this is… Read more »

koj
koj
10 years ago

The Danish song is very similar but at a higher tempo, a sped up version of the Dutch song. It’s not close enough to be called plagiarism, though to my ears it’s sounds more similar than Cascada’s entry did to Euphoria. As for people in other countries being paid to vote for Azerbaijan, isn’t this well known? I remember the reports from the Belarus media back in 2009 about how students there were paid to vote for Azerbaijan. In my mind this is just something expected now, but I don’t think it’s ever been proved if it was the Azerbaijan… Read more »

chris
10 years ago

Ridiculous. There were worse cases of copying and nothing was done by the EBU. There are similarities between the two songs above, but it’s not plaguerism.

nikki
10 years ago

if somebody think that azerbaijan buy vote then let EBU investigate it and everything appear and if there aren’t our wrong thing. than you must been Punish and your country to. AZERBAIJAN IS READY AND YOU

Babek
Babek
10 years ago

Yes. Really only teardroops is plagiat. No words!

nikki
10 years ago

yes i know that exactly these stupid guys are not azerbaijans, because azeri people aren’t stupid as them we never go restorant and speak about it loud voice and you make this video, ha ha haaaaaaa may be you are have been crazy jealous of azerbaijan and make this stupid.who watch this video and never belive it, and may be somebody belive it and they are crazy as you,it is clear that it is making The profession of an actor

nikki
10 years ago

next year you’ll say same thing and you never tired say this stupid new you are jealous of azerbaijan and it make us sooooooo happy.

milena
milena
10 years ago

The songs are the same,ooooooh.but i don’t think that azeri bought the voices,azeri song was really good.if they did it why you said it after eurovision not before?!and where i can know exactly that guys in video are azerbaijanian?but i didn’t like this year eurovision,it was so boring,the beginning of the show was absolutly bad,even don’t want to talk about the end)))))))

Alex
Alex
10 years ago

You can’t copyright a succession of 5 notes, independent of rhythm. Both songs use this progression as their main ingredient, but how many songs use a similar progression to that as Pachelbel’s Canon in D? I don’t think Pachelbel is exactly rolling in his grave each time that happens. And these notes aren’t even in nearly the same rhythm. Should Gloria Gaynor sue Selena Gomez and Donny Montell because they used the same chord progression (in a different key) as in I Will Survive? This is stupid. I call out Denmark every year for which song they rip off, but… Read more »

Zolan
Zolan
10 years ago

So, we can assume NOS is another worthless tabloid.
It’s capitalising on news of Denmark’s win with a story that no-one would buy into otherwise, and wasn’t worth publishing sooner.

nikki
10 years ago

where are you know that these people is azerbaijanians in this stupid video and where i know that they aren’t your friends and make it and i can make as stupid video and can say many things it’s just are baseless.
watch azerbaijan farid’s videos in youtube and read comments everybody say that azerbaijan should be winner not second place. poor and stupid go from here

nikki
10 years ago

Remmip hey stupid if azerbaijan buy votes then we buy first place. yes i was watched this stupid video this make child cartoon. Azerbaijan never buy votes but i think we must buy jealous as you as dog. this video is makeing jealous stupid and we can prove it is the just is liar and big liar.why azerbaijan was second and the video appear why before not. and stupid if we make this unjust business why we go Restaurant and we talk about it laud voice and who came here and make this ridiculous video. ha ha ahaaaaaaaaa it’s your… Read more »

Remmip
Remmip
10 years ago
Bahhh
Bahhh
10 years ago

COPY PASTE 100% !!!