Lee Hyori admits to plagiarism accusations

Lee Hyori has admitted that several songs from her latest album "H-Logic" were plagiarized, taking responsibility for the situation by announcing a break from all musical activities until the matter is sorted out.

The singer posted a message on her official fan cafe on Sunday morning, providing fans with a detailed explanation of the entire situation and stating that "there will be no follow-up activities unless [the plagiarism controversy] gets solved."

"There were some problems with songs by songwriter Bahnus Vaccum," wrote Lee on the website. "And after looking into the matter, we found that the songs are not the property of Bahnus Vacuum."

Lee had received a total of seven songs from a producer group named Bahnus Vacuum, known as a project group consisting of seven members, who initially denied the allegations by claiming the demos had been leaked by illegal means.

The Korean pop star went onto say, "At first, I believed that the demos had been leaked and I did not suspect anything because I got the songs through my company." Lee is represented by Mnet Media, which runs a major cable music channel in Korea.

"But after our own investigation, I discovered that they were not Bahnus' songs. I will take the moral responsibility and do my best to sort out the issue," said Lee. "This is an album that I cherish very much, so I am heartbroken and I blamed myself a lot for not having been more thorough."

She ended by the message with a public apology, saying "I would like to say once again that I am sorry to everyone who were hurt by this incident."

According to the Wikipedia entry for Lee, the songs that are reportedly accused of being plagiarized are; "I'm Back" (plagiarized from Canadian indie-singer Lil Precious' track "So Insane"); "Memory" (from British Trip-Hop group Second Person's track "The Alphabet Song"); "Feel the Same" (from Canadian indie-singer Melanie Durrant's "Feel the Same"); "Swing" (of which the melody resembles Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis' "To treno fegi stis ohto"); "Bring it Back" (from aspiring Canadian girl-group Cookie Couture's "Boy Bring it Back"); and "How Did We Get" (from Jason Derulo's "How Did We", which also sampled Annie Lennox's "No More I Love You's", which on its turn is a cover from the song with the same name by The Lover Speaks).

This is not the first time that Lee's music has been accused of plagiarism. In 2006, the song "Get Ya," the title track from her second solo album "Dark Angel," drew immediate controversy over having plagiarized U.S. pop star Britney Spears' hit tune "Do Something.'"

With composers of "Do Somethin'" accusing Lee's team of plagiarism, Lee and Mnet Media abruptly halted all promotion for "Get Ya" and quickly released a follow-up single titled "Shall We Dance."

Lee, 30, debuted in 1998 as a member of popular girl band Fin.K.L. and went solo after the group disbanded in 2002. She has released four studio albums as a solo artist, producing several hits including “10 Minutes”, “Hey Girl” and “U-Go-Girl”.

She has also branched out to acting, hosting and appearing on variety shows, most notably on the first season of SBS’ “Family Outing”.

The singer was enjoying a comeback to the music scene with "H-Logic," which was released on April 15. The title single "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" swept various K-pop music charts over the past two months.

Reporter : Kang Seung-hun tarophine@
Editor : Lynn Kim lynn2878@
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