franka batelic croatia eurovision 2018 crazy
Croatia, Franka, 2

In recent days Franka — Croatia’s Eurovision 2018 singer — has been engulfed in controversy. It emerged that a Romanian artist Guez had published a song with the same instrumental as Franka’s entry “Crazy”…some two weeks before her official song release. Some Eurofans shouted “plagiarism!” and accused Croatia of ripping off the Romanian singer.

But this evening we finally have clarity. Denis Mevlja — the co-composer of “Crazy” — has admitted that he accidentally uploaded the “Crazy” instrumental to an online store by mistake under another name.

His co-composer Branimir Mihaljevic explains what went down.

“Following the speculations about the song ‘Crazy’ and plagiarism allegations, I feel obliged to clarify the situation. The whole song is the product of our work only, and as I have previously mentioned, I’ve worked on the production of the song ‘Crazy’ together with my colleague Denis Mevlja, also known as Denzel Beats or Denz.”

“For the past two days we have been working intensively to find out how this situation emerged and how it all happened. Finally we found out that Denis Mevlja, who makes and sells beats online for a living, uploaded a wrong file on the online store site by mistake, uploading the stems for our Eurovision song ‘Crazy’ under another name, evidently without my approval as a co-writer.”

“It is all made very clear in the photo document presented by Guez which we are sending in the attachment. The song “Crazy” was made exclusively and entirely for the Eurovision song contest and this situation never should’ve happened.”

“It is unquestionable that Guez bought the song ‘Blame me’ with a very restricted license, but I must also point out that the Romanian musician has violated two articles regarding the purchase of the instrumental track from Denzel Beats, taking actions which he had no right to take according to the contract. Finally, I want to thank HRT for understanding and for your support.”

Denis Mevlja said:

“I can’t express how sorry I am that Franka became a victim of my negligence and clumsiness in an event she didn’t know about and understandably, she was completely shocked. We’ve been working all together on this song for months and one moment of my ignorance impacted all the good work we’ve done, and all the positive energy around our song. I know that Franka will still give it her all on that Eurovision stage, because I felt it since the first day we started working on the song.”

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Branko
Branko
6 years ago

Hello Wiwibloggs! Why you do not like Croatia? About Sweden you report a lot (and about other Scandinavian countries), but Croatia is different story. Jacques released a lot songs after Eurovision, but you never report about the new releases? Why??? Is it because he is not thin and beautiful enough? You reported about new songs from Samir & Viktor and they were not even at Eurovision.

Matija
6 years ago

Poor Franka, Poor Croatia!
This should not have happened. Franka is the victim of someone’s negligence.

AurelianTamisan
AurelianTamisan
6 years ago

I’ve heard that instrumental a lot in Sam Brown’s music to be sincere :)) Which makes it a great entry, I have no idea why she is so underrated so far. If Eurovision would still be abut music, this would fight to win. However, we have anti-terrorism messages from Italy and pro-women’s from Israel, which most probably confused the contest but are still on top position.

The Scorpio
The Scorpio
6 years ago

I think they’ll feel truly sorry when the crash in the semi final with that song. It’s the defintion of a filler that’s just there for the fun of it.

AM casablancas
AM casablancas
6 years ago

Here’s a quick guide on how to blatantly plagiate a song by Jennifer Brenning: 1. Choose a good song, better if it’s a song someone related with esc already produced. 2. Choose the good parts of the song (even if that means to copy 95% of the tune). 3. Feign ignorance in the best way possible, even when people do side by sides of your track and you forgot to up the pace just for a couple of bps. Là voilà! You got yourself a nice hit. And if all of that didn’t worked the way you expected, you can… Read more »

brunowskii
brunowskii
6 years ago

What a bad taste for plagiarism…
Awful song ;-((

Frankallah Batelgod
Frankallah Batelgod
6 years ago

Why are some of you kissing wiwi’s ass all of time? The first thing that everyone noticed was that both songs have the same producer, from that moment onp it was clear that this is no plagiarism case (in neither direction). Just because Wiwi didn’t care for the details or truth doesn’t mean it was right to report #fakenews (what the most loved president of all time would say). They had the option to report the truth or false info, they did the later. And it’s not the first time that William had to “fix” something one of the other… Read more »

dan1900
dan1900
6 years ago

The question is : How can this be avoided next year? Don’t buy online from Ukraine or Sweden or anywhere. WTHell this must stop somewhere. This is a disease and had to stop somewhere.

dan1900
dan1900
6 years ago
Reply to  dan1900

This is the ultimate prove that Salvador was right.
Fast food eating each other.

Pavel
Pavel
6 years ago

I think this is exactly what Salvador was referring to last year when he talked about “fast food music”. Definitely not the artist’s fault, but putting loops and beats together does not make a unique song (obviously).
Also, stop hating on Wiwi for reporting an “unsubstantiated” plagiarism case. The two songs use exactly the same base loop – with no explanation or statement from the creator(s) of the song, it sounds exactly like plagiarism.

123
123
6 years ago
Reply to  Pavel

yes exactly it SOUNDED like plagiarism…so there was no information of who did what but they still decided to post a sensational artical which suggest she plagiarised it…and btw everyone involved in the project are croats and this song is made by croats and croatia is always making their own material which you can’t say for a lot of the countries that have a tradition of buying melfest leftovers

Yaa
Yaa
6 years ago
Reply to  123

The guy that sold the track is Albanian, and he is the composer. Sad but true.

Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago

i feel bad for her. will she perform the song? or must she choose another song?

FrankallahBatelgod
FrankallahBatelgod
6 years ago

“Some Eurofans shouted “plagiarism!” and accused Croatia of ripping off the Romanian singer.” – Let’s not forget that wiwibloggs were one of the so-called Eurofans that shouted this. You basically shamed Franka for two days for “plagiarizing” something that was always hers just to come with an article about her innocence which came like a day after the producer made his statement.

123
123
6 years ago

tell me something new
2016- zara larsson unrealistic plagiarism accusations
2017- fake unproven homofobia accusations

i truly do hope hrt got the message and we withdraw in 2019

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
6 years ago

What exactly are you suggesting?:
1. Wiwibloggs is biased against Croatia and HRT?
2. Wiwibloggs is gutter tabloid press that reports every unsubstantiated rumour and accusation about plagiarism?
3. Wiwibloggs created the plaigiarism story in the first place? (Which they didn’t).
So… which one is it?

123
123
6 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

i suggested exactly what i wrote so its neither of those…i was talking about how eurofans always find something to blame us for and don’t get me wrong, a lot of them are from croatia…wiwibloggs is just one small part of Eurovision fans who are buying into this crap every year…but the problem is that they are the most influental part of Eurovision fanbase so they should take bigger responsibilty for what they’re posting cause all of this examples i posted were nothing but gossip that only managed to hurt us

123
123
6 years ago
Reply to  123

actually the second one of your offers…i just read it again

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
6 years ago
Reply to  123

Thanks 123, that’s clear. 🙂
I was actually addressing the post’s author, “FrankallahBatelgod”.

123
123
6 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

oh ok, sorry then…lol at the author’s name though

Ned
Ned
6 years ago

https://youtu.be/20iRTslR4hc
That Albanian report is an April’s Fool but anyway listen to this entry in our Finals this past december. Frankly, when I heared Franka’s song the first time I knew the bit was way too familiar. Probably today beat selling is making each song the same.

123
123
6 years ago
Reply to  Ned

no one cares cause every year there’s one or two albanians who think that everyone is copying them and that really waters down your credibility…and yeah i see the microscopic similarity but its so far fetched that its not worth mentioning especially next to this fiasco

EscAU
EscAU
6 years ago

I logged in to the transaction that guez put on his fb page and downloaded the files/stems of ‘blame me’ and all the tracks have ‘franka’ at the start of the file name, uploading it to beat stars then selling the track and confirming the transaction wasn’t an accident Denis…

Hada
Hada
6 years ago

Si he uploaded the instrumental under a different name by accident, and then sold it for $80 by accident too. Okay.

Darkpassionplay
Darkpassionplay
6 years ago

Ok so basically he say ” o look how dumb i am ….i upload wrong file …. sorry … now leave me alone!” Noone uploads wrong files , he sold that instrumental before he even knew that they will pick it for eurovision just to make an extra buck. Now he is trying to give every dumb answer to every question. Mb if people start to talk the truth instead of that bull* , they can be forgiven.

Nor
Nor
6 years ago

I don’t get all the hate for Crazy here. It’s one of my favourites this year – but reading the comments it seems like I’m in the minority!

esc sanremo fan
esc sanremo fan
6 years ago
Reply to  Nor

You’re not alone Nor, its my fav as well. I can’t help its loop on my mind all the day. But still this year is a really tough year in my opinion. All songs are good ,except Iceland,Armenia, Romania and San Marino. That means people has to choose some non-qualifiers even though they deserve to quality… Sad but thats the reality

Esc
Esc
6 years ago
Reply to  Nor

Crazy is my favorite song as well this year, and I’am so sad that all this controversy can end the few possibilities she has to qualify this year…

thespb01
thespb01
6 years ago
Reply to  Esc

Listen To Your Heartbeat back in 2001 had far more serious plagiarism claims, but still came 5th.

emi
emi
6 years ago

This Denis wanted to have both ‘wife’ and ‘mistress’ thinking they will not find out about each other.

ESCalator
ESCalator
6 years ago

How ironic that the composer sold the beat under the name “Blame Me”.

Well, guess what, everybody is blaming you now ;-)))))))

Yaa
Yaa
6 years ago
Reply to  ESCalator

What I found more ironic is the fact that the Romanian rapper version is better than the elaborate Esc duplicate! Still, Crazy is not bad eather, so go girl! Nobody will care about this in May in Lisbon! Good luck!

ESCalator
ESCalator
6 years ago
Reply to  Yaa

Yep, and they even did the mastering in the famous Abbey Road Studios (Adele, Beatles etc.). Guez probably just slapped his vocals on and it still sounds better LOL

She should’ve bought a good song from Swedish producers. She’d have much better chances of qualifying than with this 80$ beat.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago

Still hoping she scraps this terrible song.

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
6 years ago

Noooo, we Need some filler Songs in semi 1!

emi
emi
6 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

Your country was a filler for so long, I guess you know what you are talking about.

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
6 years ago
Reply to  emi

As much as I’d like to say otherwise, but you’re right…. We sent like the most mediocore Songs ever and deserve every place we got.

ESC Croatia Fan
ESC Croatia Fan
6 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

Weißbrot that’s not true! In 2015 Germany was robbed, Black Smoke was such a great song and it deserved a Top 5 finish. If the song was sent by Sweden then it would’ve ended much higher. People vote because of the politics that year and Germany was a victim of that. I still to this day listen to Black Smoke, Ann Lee was robbed.

emi
emi
6 years ago

Which one? Ann Sophie, or Jamie Lee? That proves how much you listen to that song(s).

Bercolata
Bercolata
6 years ago

No one cares, since it is an absolute nonq.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
6 years ago

At first I thought this was the funniest April Fool’s joke of the decade. But it’s actually true. I’m shocked, and a little dismayed, not only at the “mistake” itself, but at how Guez has seemingly been openly defying the terms of use of the track. There is a much wider discussion to be had in the industry about how pre-prepared music tracks are sold and shared online. It has been coming for a while, and in a way it’s good that this “mistake” was probed and highlighted by William, if only to get the discussion going. My congratulations to… Read more »

emi
emi
6 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

”I’m shocked, and a little dismayed, not only at the “mistake” itself, but at how Guez has seemingly been openly defying the terms of use of the track.”

What was Guez supposed to do? He was accused of stealing. One can’t wait for an endless trial to clear his/hers name.

Hada
Hada
6 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

Guez did nothing wrong. He was sold the track fair and square, so he used the track as he saw fit. The producer is the only one to blame for his “accident”

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
6 years ago
Reply to  Hada

No, not according to co-composer Branimir Mihaljevic, who says:
“It is unquestionable that Guez bought the song ‘Blame me’ with a very restricted license, but I must also point out that the Romanian musician has violated two articles regarding the purchase of the instrumental track from Denzel Beats, taking actions which he had no right to take according to the contract.”

emi
emi
6 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

”but I must also point out that the Romanian musician has violated two articles regarding the purchase of the instrumental track”

What could be those actions? Putting the song on you t.? Speaking about it? That only shows how producer was trying to hide his ”second business”.
The song should have been only for ESC, not ”part time job” for somebody else too.

Hada
Hada
6 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

Except Guez produced receipts. He bought the track, under a different name, for $80. You could argue that he didn’t but *exclusive* rights, but it didn’t say he couldn’t publish the result in YouTube. This is the producer making a second lie to justify the first one.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
6 years ago
Reply to  Hada

Interesting. You could be right. But I get the feeling this story might get swept quitely under the carpet now, and we’ll never know the whole truth. Sad.

Sabrina
Sabrina
6 years ago

I believe Franka’s the victim here, but it’s very hard to trust Denis’ version.

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
6 years ago

Adding to my comment below: I don’t want her to choose a new song tho, we Need some Songs to get stuck in the semi final and this one is a perfect candidate for the last places!

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

This is true but considering Franka’s discography and potential I don’t understand why Croatia is wasting this chance like this?

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
6 years ago

I have no idea, I really like her voice… She could serve us some Diva vocals, but okay…. If she wants to be low-budget Alicia Keys, it’s None of my Business.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

More like low-budget Sennek. I was expecting something more original from Croatia, it’s a country that rarely disappoints but this year they take the crown for the biggest disappointment.

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
6 years ago

Low-Budget Sennek is fitting, I just thought Crazy sounds like a lot worse Version of Alicia Keys’ ”Falling”, maybe it’s just me. (Whatever, I just want Lighthouse back, cause franka brought us a Musical Piece of nothing… Can we do that?)

azaad
azaad
6 years ago

To be honest I thought that initially but I feel like they made a song for a live performance rather than a studio cut.

emi
emi
6 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

Why don’t you want each country to bring its best? Do you think that way, your country negative record will not seem that bad?

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
6 years ago
Reply to  emi

No, I just think the song is bad and boring. It’s that simple! And I don’t even think we’ll be top 15 or anything this year, but I don’t care anymore. Also, my comment was sarcastic… To Highlight that we have enough good Songs in semi 1, we don’t Need another one. Now throw your salt somewhere else.

emi
emi
6 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

I just think is good for ESC to have 43 good songs.

emi
emi
6 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

And I also think that German song is good, but it depends if is the year for this genre. Last year could have taken Salvador crown, but we don’t know if this year the genre will work again. This is the only danger for Michael Schulte.

Jo
Jo
6 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

Croatia will qualify! Germany will get last place. You arrogant, stupid German hater!

Jo
Jo
6 years ago

He could just blame the intern.

Nechayeva
Nechayeva
6 years ago

Lo-o-o-ove

QAMIFTW
QAMIFTW
6 years ago

It is not first time croats stole songs for ages, look for songs they stole serbians and armenians

thespb01
thespb01
6 years ago
Reply to  QAMIFTW

Have you even read the article? They didn’t steal the song.

thespb01
thespb01
6 years ago

That songwriter has been incredibly irresponsible (I suspect he sold the backing track to make a quick buck), but Franka has done nothing wrong & the song should stay. After all, it’s not like anyone cared about the other song until this controversy – it’s hardly Titanium.

Ann Marie
Ann Marie
6 years ago

Duno why but i notice a bit of similarity with Denisa Gjezo’s FIK song too :/
https://youtu.be/20iRTslR4hc

Lourdes
Lourdes
6 years ago
Reply to  Ann Marie

I don’t know how true is this, but on Eurovision Albania facebook page ( that I follow for Eugent Bushpepa’s news 😛 ) they have posted an article, where they claim that the Albanian composer of Denisa’s song, has also been recognized and announced as ‘Crazy”s composer by HRT ( Croatia’ Radiotelevision) and he is going to join Croatia’s delegation to Lisbon. They said they were going to post an interview with him soon. I don’t know if this is true, but we’ll see.

123
123
6 years ago
Reply to  Lourdes

that was an april fools joke directed towards certain paraniod albanian people who think that every song on this planet is either albanian or plagiarism

Lourdes
Lourdes
6 years ago
Reply to  123

Really? If that’s true, it’s soo irresponsible!!!!

Anita
Anita
6 years ago
Reply to  Lourdes

They have fooled me too. I looked the article up again and this time let google also translate the words in brackets direct under the headline: (Risi; Shpresojmë që shakaja jonë e datës 1 Prill, t’ju ketë pëlqyer) which means: (Innovation, We hope that our joke of April 1, has liked you)
But the funny thing is that the first few notes of the songs are the same… don’t you think?

Lourdes
Lourdes
6 years ago
Reply to  Anita

Yes, exactly, that’s why I thought it was believable! Oh well!

123
123
6 years ago

comment image

29942907_10214624080810042_1346775666_o.jpg

mentioned pictures

123
123
6 years ago
Reply to  123

comment image

the second one*

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
6 years ago

I’m not blaming Franka, but it’s certainly something going on there! Denis’ Story sounds completely unlogical and dumb, I don’t buy it. He just cared for the Money and sold the track on purpose imo.

West
West
6 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

I agree – he was greedy, sold the song and when everyone found out he just said “whoops, silly me.”

Curve
Curve
6 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

He does not care about the consequences of his particular actions, and that’s one of the things that can jeopardize any of their careers in some way. Tsk tsk.

Kris
Kris
6 years ago

This guy probably wanted some easy money or sold the song to Croatian team after guez had already bought it

Jola
Jola
6 years ago

i still think they should have to change the song tho. That is not fair to the other artist considering he bought the rights to it. No h8

Nechayeva
Nechayeva
6 years ago
Reply to  Jola

”It is unquestionable that Guez bought the song ‘Blame me’ with a very restricted license, but I must also point out that the Romanian musician has violated two articles regarding the purchase of the instrumental track from Denzel Beats, taking actions which he had no right to take according to the contract.”

Not to say that the song was made for Franka, everything else came after.

Hada
Hada
6 years ago
Reply to  Nechayeva

Yeah I’m pretty sure the producer is lying about that “restricted license”. He sold the song to two different people and now screws the weaker party to save his @$$.

Nechayeva
Nechayeva
6 years ago
Reply to  Hada

Based on what are you sure? That Romanian “DJ” seems like a sketchy person, why would I trust him more? To me he is just some nobody looking to get attention in whatever way possible.
What is important is that now all the suspicions of potential plagiarism are known to be untrue and that the song was made for Franka and then sold to someone else, not the other way around.

yaybay
yaybay
6 years ago

I can smell some lie here.

yaybay
yaybay
6 years ago
Reply to  yaybay

lies*

Anita
Anita
6 years ago
Reply to  yaybay

I guess we will never know the truth but we don’t really care because it won’t be a top 10 song and it is not stealing a qualification for the finals.

Radiologistology
Radiologistology
6 years ago

How do you just upload something unknowingly, with a different name?

emi
emi
6 years ago

True, different name it means he thought about it.