This isn’t the first and it won’t be the last time that some Eurovision fans shout “plagiarism“. It’s a cry heard regularly both inside and outside the Eurovision bubble as artists create music that aligns with prevailing trends. And so it goes for Eesti Laul 2020 — the national selection for Rotterdam. Some fans are saying that Jaagup Tuisk‘s entry “Beautiful Lie” borrows elements from Billie Eilish’s “when the party’s over”.
Jaagup Tuisk’s song quickly emerged as a fan favourite. And while plenty of folks find the song inspiring, plenty of others feel that it’s perhaps a bit too inspired. Initially people said it reminded them of Duncan Laurence’s “Arcade”. But soon another comparison emerged. In early December fans on Reddit started debating this issue because “Beautiful Lie” includes the line “call me friend but keep me closer”. This line exists verbatim in Eilish’s “when the party’s over”. Now a YouTube user has created a video showing the similarities that he or she hears. Here’s what ShroomWalrus made.
Among the alleged similarities is the humming in the beginning of both songs and the similar pre-chorus structure. The user then points out a few other areas where the songs overlap in his or her opinion.
As ever, various listeners hear various things. Several commenters on the video have defended the singer. Triin U writes: “In my opinion, the songs are very different and I do not hear the similarities. As Donkey [another user who made a comment] says, ‘Call me friend but keep me closer’ is the only line in the two songs that is the same, but that’s not plagiarism.”
YouTube user LongaVita agrees. “The songs are very different and they don’t sound alike at all. Once someone starts looking for similarities, they’ll always find something. When written on the slides, the evidence appears damning, but when you hear it, it is all a bunch of hot air.”
“By this standard, almost every song copies something else. The matching lyric is the only reasonable argument: there might be some (unintentional) ‘inspiration’ going on… but a single line? The same argument applies; every modern love song would be plagiarized when going by that standard.”
We should stress that songs released within the same year or two often follow the same trends, which frequently explains coincidental similarities.
What do you think of all this? Do you hear any similarities at all? Let us know down below.
“Beautiful lie” was written beginning of the last year, them nobody knew who is Ducan! And “When the party’s ohver released end of the last year lol
Whenever I see a sentence that starts with ”SOME fans say” it means it’s time to take a break from the internet. So bye.
Almost forgot dolly styleâs sayonara copied off black pink
i mean, you see similarities in both songs, but all in all i think there are also a lot of diffrences! Jaagup sings it more dramatic and with his full voice and does not this silent Billie Voice. Every Song has similarities to another one, so its not a plagiarism.
I think it’s pretty clear that the line “Call me friend but keep me closer” was taken directly from âwhen the partyâs overâ and they only slightly changed the melody so it wouldn’t be a straight up copy. Kinda like copying homework from a friend but changing one or two words in it so it wouldn’t be too obvious. But that’s pretty much the only thing that I would think comes even close to plagiarism – the rest are just similarities.
It’s actually a very commonly used phrase in music so maybe no…
Commonly used? I’ve never heard it before and I listen to a LOT of pop music. I googled the lyric and all the results were from Billie’s song. It’s not common. The rest of the song follows the exact same structure, tempo and style than Billie’s song too. Only the melody is different – yet, similar. Come on now.
Well, Bury a Friend sounds like “People are Strange” by The Doors, and I don’t see anyone complaining ?????
I said the same first time I heard it
Not a smart idea to steal a line from one of the most popular singers in the world.
the lyrics “call me friend but keep me closer” are 1:1 when the party’s over
yeah that song issa when the party’s over x arcade mashup but didn’t really “copy” to be plagiarism. it feels so forced to me, like he was tryin way too hard to do sumthin jury bait / that locals would perceive as “quality” but it’s 100% unoriginal
Bit late to the party. These comparisons were being pointed out as soon as the song was released.
Where the user’s video particularly fails is by explicitly giving us the definitions of plagiarism and inspiration at the start, making it even clearer that this falls into the second category rather than the first. Indeed, it is absolutely clear that Jaagup was inspired by the atmosphere created by the humming in Billy Eilish’s song, and the one line that is the same. However, melodically, the similarities are simply not strong enough, dare I say not present at all, for this to qualify as plagiarism, i.e. a copy, of any portion of Billy’s song. However, what this does point to… Read more »
Wes, he would certainly win, after this kinda post ever Shame Wiwibloggs
I really don’t see how it’s plagiarism or anything. They have totally different vibes. I can see the parts that they see as slightly similar but I think it’s coincidence over anything. People are allowed to borrow parts of a song without it being plagiarism.
“People are allowed to borrow parts of a song” – No, not without asking the original singer.
“Totally different vibes” you people are deaf I swear.
DISQUALIFY HIM NOW!!
i’m estonian and the song would be so much better if it was sung in estonian because that “call me friend but keep me closer” line really bothers me… and the fact that he keeps deleting comments on his video that point it out that he stole the line lol
Tƥau kuidas lÀheb?
I believe it would take much more to make a case of plagiarism. The things highlighted in the video are actually production trends. Though I agree with Robyn that using the same verse of a famous song was a bad idea. I guess it’s clear that the song is inspired by what’s trending in music and has recently succeeded in Eurovision. So what I can see as a problem is that both Billie and Duncan were praised for being very personal and genuine and “Beautiful Lie” may sound too calculated when compared to their music. But this will be subjective.
If Toy is Seven Nation Army, then anything can be anything
I really don’t care about this song being copied in some sort of a way. When you think about it: Every artist uses sounds from other artists. I heard “Whenever” – Kris Kross Amsterdam feat. Conor Maynard a lot on the radio last year which has the exact same lyrics used in “Whenever, Wherever” – Shakira. Why was that one a hit everybody liked, but this is a no-go? Anyways, I hope Jaagup wins Eesti Laul 2020, because that song has a winning potential. The other songs are good and okay-ish, so I’m afraid that they will end up in… Read more »
One directly samples a song, which is a phenomenon seen in the music industry at large, and Shakira likely receives royalties for the Kris Kross Amsterdam track. Not only that, but Eurovision has specific rules that prohibit cover versions and sampling of other artists, and though this doesn’t seem to be either covering or sampling, it’s pretty heavily “””inspired””” by ‘when the party’s over’. I don’t disagree that Jaagup’s song has winning potential in Eesti Laul, but it reeks of plagiarism to me. The intro is notably similar, as are a lot of the features of “Beautiful Lie”. But it’s… Read more »
Sure, when Jamala does it, it’s so much more original and artistic. Come on now. One spade is not better than the other. They’re both spades in the area of original lyrics. I still like Jaagup, though.
The difference is only in the legal aspect. The poems Jamala used have no author to claim the rights to them. They are by default a public domain. *If* any particular author wants to claim copyright to their ownership, they can try and start a process. As I said, in this case, the similarities are so vague that I would be surprised if anyone decides to do anything. Even if it’s the same lyric, it’s only one. Can we even be sure he took it from this song and didn’t just think of the same idea? Sure, it’s heck of… Read more »
Mr Public Domain should get royalties on that song.
You get a plus for that one. đ Ha ha ha Unrelated to this particular case, I would seriously open a discussion on how much can a song take from the author’s previous work (Replay) or public domain (Jamala, that Romanian finalist from 3 years ago) to still be accepted for ESC. The rule explicitly says that it must be an original song (I think it does?), but some variations have been previously accepted under these two possibilities. I am guessing that the main reason for that is stopping the plagiarism accusations and be scandal-free. However, there is another important… Read more »
I find it unbelievable that they accepted Ukraine 2016. And people still pretend the song is all hers. Not to me. I believe in intellectual property. They opened a can of worms with this one, in my opinion.
I’m not very familiar with Jamala’s case (by then, I only watched the semifinals and the final without further involvement with Eurovision), but I think what matters is how the element you’re using became part of the cultural background of that people. If it’s something easily recognizable as a hommage or direct reference, it’s not plagiarism, but the use of the “collective immagination” (I hope this expression exists in other languages). But yeah, when it’s public domain, you don’t have anyone with legal rights to contest the hommage. Anyway, one more subject that EBU need to be careful with. The… Read more »
Can you explain HOW it isn’t hers??
Of course I can. When you steal the lyrics of your chorus, it’s not yours. You’re welcome.
When the song’s structure is literally the same as Billie’s, we can safely assume he didn’t think of the line himself. He stole it from Billie. It’s clear as day. Why are you making excuses for blatantly ripping off people’s creative property? Like Robyn said, that line didn’t exist in pop culture before, I did my own research on it too. But miraculously this dude thinks of the exact same line a year after the Billie’s song is released and puts it in a song which is eerily similar to the song that contains the original line? Delusion, convince yourself.
Be calm after this kind of post-Estonia doesn’t just pick him sorry that Euro’ biggest blog did such a post it’s weird not only Estonia who copies others see previous how many copies of Eleni there were and not if any extra post has been made
there will be more of them soon
Too bad the beautiful song is totally ruined what is wrong with you people?
It has 1 same verse “you call me friend, but keep me closer” and the melodi is nearly the same. Beautiful Lie is clearly “inspired” of when the party is over, but I hope that this will not be claimed. (But I don’t think it will be claimed)
That’s what I was thinking from the beginning
Our very first (but surely not the last, since each and every year has at least five of them) accusation of plagiarism. Even though I love the song, I watched the video with an open mind. Still, the similarities are quite vague and with millions (???) of songs existing in the world, there are bound to be some small similarities somewhere, even if by accident. I really don’t think there’s enough of them in this case.
Don’t care about that. I just don’t want this Arcade type of ballad to become the trend in Eurovision 2020.
How is this plagiarism lmao
Simply taking inspiration. Case closed.
Ooo nice I was featured đ What I also wrote in this comment is that the average eurovision/eesti laul viewer will not notice these subtle differences and that they were pretty farfetched. I still think that the idea of those songs being at all similar is just stupid
Come on, every song in ESC have some inspiration from someone, the song IS NOT plagiarism at all, yes there are some similarities but just a few ….
And i remember Cascada, Mans, Netta also faced plagiarism and nothing happened with these songs, they even won ESC …well Cascada failed so mutch đ
I dont know if he will win Esti Laul, there are also others strong artist sutch us – Laura, Stefan, Traffic, Shira, Rasmus, Egert, Uudo or Uku it will depends on live performance
Totally agree. Here’s more evidence I found:
1. Both songs’ titles have letter “A” in them.
2. Both “Beautiful Lie” and “When The Party’s Over” are sung by humans.
3. Though it may be hard to notice at first, both songs contain music.
If that’s not convincing enough, I don’t know what is.
Omg, I like you ?
This is so funny, like… I totally agree! đ