Moldova‘s broadcaster TRM can’t catch a break! Just hours after it was revealed that “Mama” was performed live long before 1 September 2016, O melodie pentru Europa 2017 can add another controversy to its CV. Semi-finalist Irina Kit has been accused of stealing the chorus of Akon‘s song “Bananza (Belly Dancer)” for her own entry “Baby Don’t Cry”.
Serj Coston, one of the acts whose song was rejected during yesterday’s live auditions, has accused the jury of “listening to the songs with the a**” and not the ears. In an angry Facebook post, he put the choruses of the two songs next to one another and says that the entries ought to have been checked for plagiarism before the live auditions.
Judge for yourselves:
https://www.facebook.com/serj.coston/videos/10207631456444217/
https://www.facebook.com/serj.coston/videos/10207631458964280/
Here is Irina Kit’s live audition from yesterday, in its entirety:
Irina Kit, whom you might remember as Irina Kitoroaga from the 2015 national selection, acknowledged the resemblance, but claimed innocence as she was not the songwriter. She was quoted by the local media as vowing “to rectify the mistake and totally change the chorus.”
TRM is yet to comment on this.
Update on January 25: Sweden Songs, the music publishing company that helped her with the song, have told wiwibloggs that Irina was responsible for the chorus, which is the source of the controversy.
What do you think about this case of acknowledged plagiarism? Should Irina Kit be disqualified or should she be allowed to change the chorus of her song? Sound off below!
Yep. It’s plagiarism. They both ripped off the melody of “For What It’s Worth.”
https://youtu.be/gp5JCrSXkJY
(To make it perfectly clear: NO you tone-deaf simpletons, there is no plagiarism here, by anybody.)
I was such a fan of Akon’s song when it came out and to me it sounds absolutely the same. That’s one of the most severe cases of plagiarism for me yet! :O
In the end, I don’t care about this song, but I want to say 2 things:
1. If Eastern Europe wants to sing about belly-dance, they have so many sources of inspiration, to rely on Akon is a crime in itself.
2. How can the jury find out if a song is plagiarised? How can they check all the other songs in the world?
Aaron: “you should be more worried about I Love My Phone-which sounds exactly like Perfect Strangers…honestly!!”
In places the two songs use similar instruments and similar sounds, but melodically they are different. Uninspired, yes; plagiarised, no.
The chorus of each song has exactly the same melody and similar lyrics in one part. That should be enough to sound alarm bells for TRM.
Disqualify her! 😛
It’s pretty petty for a rejected contestant to be the one to bring this to light though lol
It doesn’t matter anyway. DON T LIE IS THE WINNER SONG. ????
In my opinion, it’s plagarism
The Erna girl from Iceland completely copied Undo (basically, her song is a cover of Undo) and she’s getting away with it, so…
It’s literally the same song. And the mash-up of her facial expressions is hilariously cute. Love her!
RIP Moldova
No, this is no plagiarism, like Belgium 2016 was not ”Another one bites the dust” and I’m not sarcastic.
They sounds absolutely nothing alike, you should be more worried about I Love My Phone-which sounds exactly like Perfect Strangers…honestly!! The only song that can bring Moldova to the final is “Hey Mama” I think it’s called….