It’s time to grab your spoons and stir the pot, hunty! Last weekend Nano advanced from the first semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2017 direct to the March 11 final. But amid his celebrations, fans were quick to draw comparisons between his song “Hold On” and Jessica Mauboy‘s “This Ain’t Love”. Jessica, you’ll remember, performed for Australia as a special interval act at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014.

Melodifestivalen newcomer Nano went into the first semi-final buoyed by a lot of hype. Bookies, insiders and journalists who had heard the song all tipped it to challenge Ace Wilder and her number “Wild Child” for the win. And in the run-up to the actual show, as clips and snippets of his song were released to the public and under extra scrutiny owing to said hype, musical sleuths cried that they’d heard much of the song before on Jessica’s track, which was released in November 2015.

Indeed, the tracks do share a few similarities — from the gospel-style backing to the flourish of drum and bass to the swell leading into the chorus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IoKvGfTfo0

And there’s a pretty obvious reason why these songs have a similar signature: They both come from the songwriter Carl Ryden.

A tried and tested music maker, Carl has has also written dance tracks for David Guetta, Australia’s Havana Brown and Denmark’s Nabiha.

But none of these songs have the clear drum and bass elements that “Hold On” and “This Ain’t Love” share.

And while some Eurovision fans are very quick to throw around words like plagiarism, that’s probably not the case here.

Drum and bass as a music genre dates back to the early 1990’s, when it became a staple of raves in southern England. Recently the genre has gained mainstream success through the likes of artists such as Rudimental.

Do we think that Nano has plagiarised Jessica Mauboy? No. Do we think that songwriters frequently draw on broader musical trends and their preferred set of stylistic flourishes and techniques? Absolutely. The similarities could also, of course, simply be a strange and humorous coincidence.

What do you think of the comparison between the two songs? Let us know in the comments below!

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jzky
jzky
7 years ago

first i though it sounded a bit like rudimental, but haven’t had the time to compare them more 😉

https://youtu.be/AHH9psxZoaI

Charli Cheer Up
Charli Cheer Up
7 years ago

Not only that. Hozier – Take Me To Church + Sigma – Coming Home(feat. Rita Ora) aswl!!

escAU
escAU
7 years ago

As an Aussie and big Jess fan, when I first heard Jess’ song it actually reminded me of Paloma Faith’s changing (with the ooo at the start and obvious drum and bass vibes) and recognised the similarity too when I heard Nano’s song! The thing is, Nano’s song is derivative and I’ve heard it before but it’s still a good effort, good luck to him in the final

Jonas
Jonas
7 years ago

There always seems to be a dog barking somewhere in the background in these songs.

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
7 years ago

Having said all that, Nano’s song doesn’t sound THAT similar to Jessica’s.

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
7 years ago

@Macus: You’re referring to Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, who wrote “Halo” for Beyonce, and used the same music for his other song, “Already Gone”, for Kelly Clarkson.

It happens quite often. In 1980, an R&B funk band called Slave released a song called “Watching You”. Two years later, the exact same music wound up on (former) disco band Odyssey’s hit “Inside Out”.

MTD
MTD
7 years ago

Of course, it’s all good, this is Sweden we’re talking about.

If this was, lets say Cyprus…or Macedonia…or Belarus…well, we all know what would have happened by now. 😉

Oh, and yeah, they share the same “sound”. Which is enough to say that Sweden ain’t much creative as one can think. 😉

Charles
Charles
7 years ago

The way some people act obsessively and over dramatically about one particular rubbish song that fairly enough got eliminated despite being a favourite among fans … and I repeat … fans … not televoters … two different groups of people … is just unbelievable … it should be shown at some episode of some bs reality show TV docu series or something with the hope the whole planet would be sensitive enough to understand the pain and sorrow … should Bravo broadcast it and Conchita Wurst host it? For as long as GREAT songs go though to the final …… Read more »

Chance Hamlin
Chance Hamlin
7 years ago

And let the claims of Eurovision Song Contest plagiarism begin.

Many songs sound similar because they are in the same style. They definitely have similar elements but they honestly don’t sound anything alike.

LOL
LOL
7 years ago

LOL well same type of song but not very similar to be honest…
Its just like when loreens Euphoria was compared to some sex song from Serbia because the songs had the same name hahaha

@Artur, yes there is a hype about him because he had the best song of semi-final 1 and because he basically came from nowhere and took people by surprise, do not really see what’s so annyoing about him getting some attention…

mad-professor
mad-professor
7 years ago

They sound slightly similar but not that much. All this does is make me sad that Australia didn’t send Jessica (or even Dami) with this song last year.

Nitzan
Nitzan
7 years ago

Not too similar, both songs are great. Nano’s is better.

Macus (Day One)
Macus (Day One)
7 years ago

They do sound very similar.
Its like when the writer of Halo gave basically the same song to another artist.
To me Nano sounds like a demo version of a Rudimental song.

Not that great and if he does go to Eurovision Sweden would struggle to qualify.

Artur
Artur
7 years ago

OMG, the hype around him is getting more and more annoying. He is so overrated. Absolutely nothing special.