BANGKOK — A recent hit by luk thung superstar Lumyai Hai Thongkam did not rip off from a 2014 Romanian pop song as alleged by the internet, her manager said Thursday.
After the dance single “Jai Si Pay” dropped Sunday, netizens notice its similarity to Romanian pop song “Viva La Fiesta” by Mandinga. But Prachakchai Navarat, owner of Hai Thongkam Records, said he was unaware that the song resembled a “Viva La Fiesta” when he bought it a year ago from a songwriter. He suggested it was purely coincidental.
“We listened to the song and liked it, so we bought it. It’s like buying a lottery ticket,” Prachakchai said in an interview with Khaosod. “How would they know how many tens of thousands, or millions of songs are out there? Song composers always face this issue of overlapping melodies.”
Prachakchai said that he would be willing to discuss copyright issues with Mandinga if the singer raised any legal challenge.
“It’s not an incurable legal issue. We can talk,” he said. “We are ready to fix the problem, and are working with the songwriter and our copyright team.”
Netizens, however, didn’t see the songs’ similarities as a coincidence, especially during its repeating chorus.
“I tried listening to Viva La Fiesta. You basically stripped all of their songs and carried it over to yours,” Maew See Som Uan commented on her YouTube video. “Go listen if you don’t believe me.
User Grish Haruencheep jokingly commented that the two songs were different – because Lumyai’s had an ad for contact lenses at the end.
Others had a nihil nove sub sole approach, however.
“All songs copy each other. Foreigners copy our songs, we copy foreign songs. From past until present, billions of songs have been made, so it’s a miracle if any is unique,” Facebook user Sontaya Sawameechai wrote.
In 2017, Lumyai Hai Thongkam’s sexually suggestive onstage dance in golden hot pants caused so much controversy that junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha himself criticized her twerking moves. Police were also dispatched to advise her to cover up at a concert.
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