The world loves a mystery. Incidents like the Marie Celeste fascinate people all over the world and now we have a fresh mystery on our hands.
It concerns Croatia’s Eurovision singer Franka. Her mystical track “Crazy” was released through Eurovision’s official accounts on March 7. So far, so normal.
But two weeks previously, a song with same instrumental as “Crazy” appeared on a different YouTube channel, with different lyrics and vocals provided by Romanian artist Guez.
The alternate version is titled “Ceea ce iubim”, which translates as “what we love”. An exact scenario of events for how this has happened is unclear.
The revelation has sent social media into a frenzy, sparked by a tweet from @justonekoala, and has drawn mixed responses from Eurofans:
I hope Croatia has a back up song. #eurovision #croatia #franka #crazy
— JLG?????? (@JLG_144) March 30, 2018
I can’t believe Croatia have done that, literally copy, paste, Franka ??
— Alasdair Macrae ?????? (@euromacrae) March 30, 2018
Curiously, the Guez version has more views than Franka's, would be really weird if they found the leaked instumental, recorded over it, released it before Croatia and then got more views from it if that's what happened…
— Grace ????????? (@gmountjoy1) March 30, 2018
The scenario of Croatia's national broadcaster or Franka – a pretty well-established artist in her country – hacking an unknown romanian band and stealing a song is completely bullshit. The other way around is, in my personal opinion, likely to be the truth.
— Andrea ? (@ANDREAESCIT) March 30, 2018
In an interview with wiwibloggs released in February, Franka did share some insights about the songwriting process for “Crazy”, which adds further confusion to the mix.
The Croatian star states that Branimir Mihaljevic was responsible for composing the music and that their work together was inspired by her previous single “S tobom”. Mihaljevic has a past Eurovision credit for Feminnem’s Eurovision 2010 track “Lako je sve”. The Romanian version instead credits the instrumental to Denzel Beats.
In a video posted to his Facebook page two weeks ago, Guez directly accused Franka of plagiarism:
Ok , piesa ceea ce iubim tocmai a fost plagiat? de c?tre Croa?ia pentru concursul Eurovision. What the hell it's going on?
Posted by Jugureanu Guez Marius on Sunday, March 18, 2018
Croatia’s “Crazy” situation is reminiscent of Malta’s “Dai laga” dilemma. Back in January, fans noted that the base instrumentation behind Adian Cassar’s MESC entry “Dai laga” was a production track that had been released before the 1 September deadline. This component was removed from the song and “Dai laga” went on to place fourth at the Maltese national final.
In cases where Eurovision songs have been previously available online, the EBU has normally approved their participation in the contest. This year, for example, Belarus’s contestant Alekseev will compete with “Forever” even though he performed it live prior to 1 September 2017.
It’s unclear how the EBU will proceed where the instrumental is exactly the same.
UPDATE: In a statement on her Facebook page, Franka has clarified the situation herself and acknowledged that both songs have the same producer “Denzel Beats”. She also points out versions of both songs are available on digital streaming platforms and suggests that she views this as a “cover”, and that she’s excited to hear more on the way to Eurovision.
The song Crazy is the product of the work of Karpo media group, and alongside Branimir Mihaljevi?, the song was produced…
Posted by Franka on Saturday, March 31, 2018
What do you think about the mystery? Should Franka be allowed to compete? Let us know in the comments below!
The plagiarism is on the music and rythm too : Stop – Sam Brown,.
Famous song from 90’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4yOa3tBrB8)
Is Franka Vasilije’s succesor?
lol ))0)
this is what happens when you buy the sample…case closed
Does no one understand that the beginning of the instrumental literally says “Crazy”. I mean come on it was made for her. Idk how it got to the other guy but you can tell it’s made for her.
This article has been updated, and Franka said the Romanian version is just a cover of her song.
Is not a good answer in my opinion.
I don’t think it should be called a cover… i mean the song was realesed 2 days before her teaser so…
Since we can only speculate right now – I think it’s more likely that one song was sold to two artists. Although it is suspicious that the two videos were released so close to each other – if the song was sold months before, it would be too much coincidence that the release would be this organised. And since you can’t make music video overnight (at least not as elaborate as Croatian) while recording vocals isn’t that difficult (especialy vocals with so much autotune) it makes me think that if plagiarism was happening – it’s the Romanian artist who’s guilty… Read more »
Franka’s team clapped back! They also said it’s Denis Mevlja’s fault, his stage name is Denzel Beats
They also said we’ll get a new version of Crazy soon!
Franka should be allowed to change the song completely, like Ira Losco in 2016. I don’t think the two singers are guilty.
I hope they get to the bottom of what’s happened. Whoever made a copy should be fined. *IF* it’s Franka’s team, they should be DQ. I hope HRT can convince anyone to borrow a newly released song, so we can at least participate. Even if we end-up 19th of 19 in the semi, I want to be able to vote for my favorites. 🙁
And all this just because not everybody has a sister like Luisa Sobral.
Keep it in the family.
True! Hahaaahhaah
Denzel Beats and Denis Mevlja seems to be the same guy. He made the raw hip-hop arrangement first and sold it to Romanians and then later he collaborated with Branimir, they used Denis’ instrumental as a base, Branimir added additional chords and composed vocal and violin melodies and that’s how “Crazy” was created. The question is if Franka and Branimir knew that Denis had sold the instrumental to Romanians before giving it to them or not.
My guess is that Denis did the modern arrangement for Franka first but then sold it to the Romanian guy. While Crazy went for additional mixing and mastering to a London studio the rapper released the demo-ish version.
It’s not plagiarism. Denis Mevlja (Denzel Beats) did the beat production for both songs. He just sold it to the Romanian guy without telling Franka’s team.
He doesn’t have to admit anything (and he won’t to save his ass) since he’s credited as a producer for both songs. Credits don’t lie.
Hips also don’t lie
It doesn’t matter who released it first. Franka was the first one to had the instrumental. Both songs have Denis Mevlja (Denis Mevlja) and the producer. He sold the track to the Romanian guy without telling Franka’s team. No plagiarism and Franka had the track first.
He won’t admit it to save his ass. Both songs have the same beat producer, it doesn’t even matter if he admits it or not, it’s in the credits.
He worked on both songs.
Weird situation. Probably both got the same instrumentals from the same guy.
But to do this in regards to an Eurovision song is very dumb… Of course someone would find out. I am just guessing…
The teaser for Franka’s video (including a sound sample) was released on 26th February (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4ZSXkTraFI), only two days after the Romanian video was uploaded.
So within two days, Franka’s team discovered the song, re-wrote it, submitted it to the broadcaster, shot a (quite elaborate) video and teased it on youtube? I don’t think that’s a quite likely scenario. Besides, the song title had already been known for quite a while.
Guez copied Franka. You can hear a slight “CRAZY” in his song around 1 min if you filter the song. Plus his song doesn’t have the “LO-O-O-OVE” part in his song.
FRANKA IS THE ORIGINAL ONE, Guez is a joke.?
I don’t think is possible for Guez to copy Franka. Is either the composer’s fault, or somebody from her team wanted to sabotage Franka.
Franka and Guez are pawns.
What has the number of views to do with all that?
Views don’t matter. It’s just a tactic by the Romanians trying to cover the fact that the same guy who produced Franka’s track also sold the same production the the Romanian rapper.
Also Franka has +1 million views with the two videos combined.
No. Franka already did the song and then Denis sold the production to the Romanian guy. I doesn’t matter who released first. The production was made for Franka’s Crazy and was sold later to that artist without Frank’s knowledge.
Which didn’t happen since Franka’s videos have more views.
Franka is Eurovision entry, Guez is really obscure, but still his version is better, so his fans drove in tones.
I don’t think that Franka is guilty, as she could not know about it, as she only wrote lyrics. I hope this drama will be over.
No. We don’t like drama. Especially not this kind of drama.
I agree with you, it seems so wrong that Franka would risk her career….. So I think you’re right about the song has been sold twice, I think it makes more sense
I can’t believe this is happening! If she’s being DQ, I’m going to cry. Crazy is one of my biggest favourites this year (2nd)???????????
And emojis don’t work, great…..
You are of course right, but I will still be sad if she’s getting DQ
Many call themselves ‘songwriters’ and ‘producers’ just because they have a computer, and they don’t care that is illegal to sell the same song left and right. Am I starting to agree with Salvador Sobral?
This is different to other cases of songs being released earlier than 1st September by the same artist.
It seems that the song was given to the Romanian artist beforehand and then to Franka.
Because of the considerable amount of views it would seem likely that Crazy will be reworked or replaced.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. This isn’t a case of a song being made available before the deadline, this is more a case of straight-up plagiarism.
dai laga placed 4th in malta, not 3rd
I hope is not the curse of 43. imo they are both victims of the same songwriter. Music became such a cold pragmatic business.
Seriously…how can you get involved in possible plagiarism and still end up with such a mediocre song?
The saddest part is that this one is better than “Crazy” is too.
The producer of both tracks *denis mevlja* is the link here- he also produced franka’s ‘z tobom’, he must have given the track to the romanian guys/they stole it
I am so glad somebody’s figured it out among all the conspiracy theories!
Let’s be honest. EBU didn’t complain Hovig and his song Gravity as the clearest plagiarism ever to compete. Also, don’t forget that we had plagiats that won *cough* Mans *cough*. EBU lost it’s credibility long time ago when started using double standards.
There’s a difference between inspiration, plagiarism and taking the whole instrumental part of the song, whole 3 minutes, and using them in “another” song.
EBU likes political drama, because it draws attention to the constest. They don’t like this kind of drama, so they will probably let Croatia compete normally.
On the video uploaded on her own YouTube channel, not eurovision channel, here are the credits:
Lyrics: Franka Bateli?
Composed: Branimir Mihaljevi?
Produced: Branimir Mihaljevic & Denis Mevlja – Denz
Beat production: Denis Mevlja – Denz
On the Romanian video:
Interpretare: GUEZ
Text: GUEZ
Instrumental : Denzel Beats
Denz/ Denzel. Aren’t they admitting basically that they both got the instrumental from the same guy??
I think it is, because if you type Denis Mevlja on Google his instagram account is “Denzdenz”
Sorry, got confused, Denz is different than Denzelbeats. Well, we shall see…
I actually think it’s the most likely scenario, Denz and DenzelBeats must be the same guy and that’s hot it happened.
The 43 curse strikes! I have a feeling they’re gonna drop out plus they’re in the semi with 19 acts so if they do withdraw it’ll be equal. That’s my prediction!
So they probably bought the same instrumental from the same ghostwriter, and now there is one instrumental with two different “composers”. Even if they don’t disqualify Franka, this won’t help her with the juries. She should sure the “songwriter”.
As Purple Mask quoted on the other post and Hector wrote here, there’s a big chance the same backing track was sold to both producers/artists. Let’s see how Croatia and the EBU will respond to that.
Maybe she can borrow the ‘Crazy’-song from the UK selection? RAYA won’t be needing it anyway. (‘:
woooow this is crazier than the party shore / cool me down plag
also shoutout to jenni b for taking down my video -_-
And she took it down in a copyright claim. Oh, the irony.
spill the tea wiwi
Franka’s ‘beat producer’ and ‘producer’ is Denis Mevlja – Denz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il3_lTWw4XA
Guez credits instrumental to Denzel Beats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YeP3liZhoU
Denis Mevlja – Denz = Denzel Beats?
Honestly, let’s hope she sends ‘S tobom” instead. I think that song was released in december if im not mistaken?
If she chops off 30 seconds like Italy did, she’s golden.
30 seconds of of what? (so sorry im so out of the loop haha)
Of the song
Hi Jola,
Eurovision songs have to be 3 minutes maximum and S tobom is 30 seconds or so too long.
Isn’t this murmur on the beginning (and somewhere around 20 seconds in the track) the word “crazy”? That’s what I’ve always thought since I heard the song for the first time.
It’s just instrumentals. This component of music is often recycled and used by various artists throughout the world. Even Beyonce has an instrumental part that was released years prior by a Romanian group. If it was the same lyrics, that would be a different story.
These romanians man ….. they are smart , fast and they are everywere …
Franka is clearly the victim here. I can’t imagine her being the victim of plagiarism would get the song disqualified.
Miss Vanjie….Miss Vanjie….
you, my friend, are a miserable, pathetic person 🙂 the fact that you and some other people are so happy for Franka’s misery is truly disturbing and sickening…
no she didn’t plagiarise anything cause the snippet of a finished product was released just 2 days after romanian song…and anyone with a little bit of common sense can conclude that that’s not enough time to copy anything especially because Franka’s song was finished in January…and i think they are both victims of a troll who sold the same song to both of them…and no i don’t support plagiarism and i never said that. the only thing i said was that i don’t like these nasty people who feed off of someone elses dramatic situations
Why does everybody think that “earlier release date” can be treated as an evidence? The audio could be stolen months before the release.
You are speculating also.
i can say they are victims cause producer denzel beats was signed on both songs and he is a croat who worked on this with Franka…so he sold this to both of them…and THAT is a fact
Well its a NQ song anyway so who cares …..
She is nothin but Emina Jahovic copycat
…came out after September 1st. I’m chill.
she have adorable feet to worship with every penny i have….those fingers are to live with forever…..
I don’t think Croatia’s broadcaster has that kind of money to pull off this kind of publicity stunt.
That doesn’t make any sense, especially coming from Croatia, whose broadcaster doesn’t care much about the contest.
This is either blatant plagarism (in one way or the other) or I wonder if Costin Milon, the mixer for Guez, maybe got Franka’s verses for Eurovision and still had a copy of Guez’s track (maybe because he worked on it with him, but wasn’t an “official” part of the team, so didn’t get credit), and didn’t realize that Guez had released the song with the same track already — whatever happened, this is messy and only makes her already slim chances of advancing to the final worse…
no no no croatia i did not want eurovision drama from you : (
This version is better than Croatia’s one, in my opinion.