Finland: Käärijä’s song accused of plagiarism!
A few days ago, Käärijä’s song titled “Cha Cha Cha”, was released in order to compete in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2023, the Finnish national final for Eurovision 2023.
From the moment it was released, it quickly became one of the fan favourites and rised to the first place of the betting odds for winning the national final, by a great margin.
However, some of the comments in the Finnish press came in to change everything and even disqualify Käärijä from the contest. The journalists accused Käärijä of plagiarism and that his song is a copy of another song, something that is prohibited by EBU’s rules for the contest.
🇫🇮 ¿Käärijä acusado de plagio?
La prensa finlandesa comenta el parecido con un tema de Electric Callboy.
Poco ha tardado él en desmentirlo en MTV. #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/VOJtrsqK2T
— Luis Mesa ۞ (@luismesacabello) January 24, 2023
In detail, the accusations want “Cha Cha Cha” to be a copy of the song “We Got the Moves” by Electric Callboys a German electronicore group:
What do you think about all of the above? Do you think that “Cha Cha Cha” is indeed a copy and that Käärijä should be disqualified from UMK?
Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Finnish participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, in Liverpool!
It is. End of.
It’s not. End of. Anyone who knows anything about EDM and techno knows mixing techno and metal is nothing new under the sun, this particular sound is well established in the genre. Inspired? Possibly. Plagiarism? Absolutely not and it’s ridiculous to even claim so
Totally is ! Almost identical
It aint CHA CHA CHA is in the key of D-major and We got the moves is in F-minor now yes the speed is somewhat close 155 BPM and 150 BPM but if you were deaf you could even smell the difference between the tonation speed chords and everything
After analyzing carefully both songs, I confirm that Käärija’s song is not a plagiarism.
It took only the intro and start of singing to agree.. what obvious plagiarism, lol
Oh sweet innocent child there is so much more than an intro and the first couple of lines
No it’s not. Genre only is the same.
After listening to both songs and watching both videos, while Cha Cha Cha seems potentially inspired by We Got The Moves, saying it’s a copy or plagiarism seems clickbait at best, and at worst just a smear campaign. Sure, they’re both EDM dance songs, but that’s about it. Different beats, different lyrics, different change in tone, different video presentation, etc. The only similarity is some repeated phrases in each, but that alone isn’t plagiarism.
There are similarities, but they’re very different moods and big differences in overall structure.
Ultimately all music is based on other music. All of it. The chord sequences, structures, sounds and harmonies. And being of a genre immediately adds a big layer of similarity. To a lot of people all jazz sounds the same, or all brass bands, or all Flemish trip hop.