I hadn’t intended another post this soon on the Eurovision song contest, but there’s some breaking news to report. So far this year on Two to TÜ, I’ve mentioned Eurovision twice: first when talking scandals that disqualified songs in the past, and then last week when talking about the contest to pick the German entry for the Eurovision 2013 contest. Since the latter post was just last Friday, you might still recall that the winner was a song called Glorious, performed by the group Cascada.
However, an article in a German tabloid newspaper Bild, claims that the song Glorious is “absolutely identical” to last year’s Eurovision winner entitled Euphoria. Here’s a quote from an English language newspaper article about the controversy:
… Tina John, a phonetics expert quoted in Bild am Sonntag, said: “The chorus uses the same accentuation, the ending peaks with the same combinations. The singers even use the same breathing methods.” — The Independent, February 19, 2013
BTW, another article in the same newspaper, also dateline yesterday, calls Tina John a “music expert”, not a phonetics expert. Darn. Not that she can’t be both, of course, it’s just not that often that you see a phonetics expert cited in the mainstream media about anything, let alone about a rock and roll song contest controversy.
But I digress.
As you know from my previous post on past Eurovision scandals, this isn’t the first time composers have been accused of plagiarizing an old song. For example back in 1973, the Spanish song is (to me) virtually identical to the 1966 Yugoslavian song, but the ruling went in favor of Eres Tu being “new music”, and therefore was allowed to compete.
It still remains to be seen what will happen to Cascada and Glorious. In an odd twist, Euphoria, the Swedish entry that won last year and that Glorious is said to have copied, was itself accused of being a copy of a song by the rock star Rihanna. Here are some links so you can judge for yourself:
- Rihanna song Who’s that Chick
- Loreen singing Euphoria (Eurovision 2012 winner)
- Cascada singing Glorious (Eurovision 2013 German entry)
Now, personally I’d say #2 is enough different from #1 as to not be a copy of #1. So I’d agree with last year’s ruling that said Euphoria was not a copy of #1. However, I’d have to agree with that phonetics expert quoted in the newspaper that #3 does seem virtually identical to #2. Which means Glorious should technically be disqualified as not being a “new song” and therefore not eligible to be the German entry for Eurovision 2013.
But to be fair, I don’t actually even like songs #1, #2, #3, so perhaps it’s best that they don’t call on me as an expert to decide the case. 😉
Now, I wanted to go out on a musical note for this post, with songs I actually do like. One that came to mind immediately — and it isn’t a Broadway show tune, even — is the one that I used as the basis for the name of this post, It’s the Same Old Song.
However, a Broadway song that also came to mind as I was writing this post is one of my favorite songs from the musical Ragtime. The song is called New Music. However, I couldn’t find any good clips of that song among the high school production versions I found on YouTube. Nothing against the high school singers, of course — I was an enthusiastic young performer of musicals myself, back in the day.
However, Ragtime is one of the few musicals I actually saw with the original cast on Broadway. And I still remember hearing Audra McDonald, one of the original stars, sing in that show. Her voice sent chills down my spine, she was that good. So, it’s harder for me to hear high school students sing the songs I heard her sing that first time I heard her.
So, while I couldn’t find a good clip of the New Music song, I’ll leave you with a clip I found of Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell, two of the original Ragtime Broadway cast members, singing their big duet from the show, Wheels of a Dream.
Now, that song sounds nothing like Euphoria, nor would it ever be confused with Cascada’s winning song from the contest last week.
But for me, hearing Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald singing that duet from Ragtime is … well … glorious.
OK, that was a bit of a digression, but at least it all tied together at the end, eh? 😉