You can always count on the unfolding saga surrounding “Count On Me, Singapore” for your latest entertainment or source of outrage, depending on how involved you are in the affair.
Just days ago, Indian composer Joey Mendoza, who rose to dubious fame after claiming to have written the lyrics and music to “We Can Achieve” (which is almost similar to “Count On Me, Singapore”), relinquished his claims over the song after failing to substantiate his ownership.
But just as he sets out to remove “We Can Achieve”, it turns out there’s another ripoff song.
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“We Have A Vision”, uploaded to Youtube by the Indian spiritual non-profit Dada Bhagwan Foundation, has—you guessed it—almost the same tune and lyrics as “Count On Me, Singapore”.
The only differences are, unsurprisingly, where the word “Singapore” appears: in We Have a Vision, the names of the Foundation’s leaders and beliefs are invoked instead.
Apparently, the song was uploaded as early as 2015, with the Foundation claiming “all rights reserved” on the album cover.
They are even selling downloads of the song on Bandcamp, as a single for US$0.50 or with the rest of the Gujarati language album for US$2.
And yes, it’s still on sale.
It’s Mine! No, It’s Actually Mine
Strangely similar songs and battles over their ownership are actually not so uncommon. In fact, some of the biggest names involved in the music industry have faced contests to their songs’ originality, according to Business Insider
Just last year, for example, The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar were accused of using a 2007 song, “Sunrise”, in their single “Pray For Me”, produced for the blockbuster movie Black Panther.
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Brooklyn-based band Yeasayer, who created “Sunrise”, demanded all profits from the much more famous song, and that the song be removed from the air immediately.
Going a bit further in time, Katy Perry’s 2013 single “Dark Horse” was accused of copying a Christian rap song named “Joyful Noise”, and brought to court by musician Marcus Gray. Gray, in fact, won the lawsuit, and a court-ordered Perry and her team to pay a whopping $2.78 million as compensation.
Katy Perry is seeking to appeal the verdict, but woohoo—what a good day for Marcus Gray.
Even National Anthems Are Involved
It is much rarer for songs that represent an entire nation to be involved in ownership contests, though—but amazingly enough, even official national anthems of countries have faced accusations of stealing.
For example, the Bosnian national anthem, composed by Dusan Sestic in 1998 in a nationwide contest, was found in 2009 to be uncannily similar to music in National Lampoon’s Animal House, a 1978 film.
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According to the BBC, the controversy grew far-reaching enough that a newspaper tried to encourage a lawsuit against Sestic, and he was forced to defend himself on TV by pointing out differences noticeable between the two melodies.
The allegations eventually subsided: after all, differences did exist between the two melodies.
Featured Image: Youtube (Dada Bhagwan)
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