Ministry Responded to India’s Version of ‘Count on Me, S’pore’; Many Videos Have Been Taken Down

In case you’ve missed it, Singapore’s national day song, “Count on Me, Singapore”, was plagiarised almost completely many years ago.

This came to light after savvy netizens noticed the uncanny resemblance between India’s patriotic song, “We Can Achieve” and our national day song.

Image: YouTube / Lyrics Freak

Naturally, the locals aren’t happy.

Image: YouTube

Now, if you’re one of the unhappy ones, and wondering if anything’s going to be done about it, the answer is “yes”.

Something’s going to be done about it.

Ministry Responded to India’s Version of ‘Count on Me, S’pore’

On 12 Mar 2021, the Ministry for Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) took to their Facebook page to assure Singaporeans that they’re aware of the matter and are looking into it.

They are currently investigating the issue for “potential copyright infringements”, the ministry stated.

It also took the opportunity to thank Singaporeans for their “sense of ownership and pride” in the song.

Many Videos Have Been Taken Down

Despite some netizens’ misgivings, it seems that immediate actions were already taken.

For one, the “most polished” version of the song “We Can Achieve” is no longer available for public viewing on YouTube.

Image: Screengrab from YouTube

When we wrote about the song yesterday, this particular video was still online.

It’s not the only one either, and at least one cover of the popular India song has been removed as well.

Image: Screengrab from YouTube

There are still cover videos available for those who want to hear what the song is like:

We Can Achieve

The song, “We Can Achieve”, is an almost-completely plagiarised version of “Count On Me, Singapore”.

And why do we say, almost completely?

Because the only thing that changed about the song is the mention of Singapore.

All the “Singapore” words in the song were cleverly changed to “India”.

It’s not a new thing either and even as early as 2016, one woman was filmed using the lyrics as a tool to practise English.

Back then, the plagiarised song wasn’t as popular and it wasn’t known what made the song popular once again.

There are many versions of the plagiarised song on YouTube, with many covers made in the past year.

Feature Image: YouTube / Lyrics Freak / Facebook (MCCY)