ATEEZ’s fans raise plagiarism concerns over (G)I-DLE’s Soyeon’s song

ATEEZ’s fans once again took to Twitter demanding an apology from (G)I-DLE’s Soyeon, CUBE Entertainment, and MBC. On MBC’s program My Teenage Girl’s finale, Soyeon performed a song titled SUN and was credited as the original writer and producer for it. However, ATINYs noticed similarities between the song’s chorus and the group’s hit 2019 song Wave from TREASURE EP.3: One to All.

Wave was written and produced by KQ Entertainment’s members, Eden, Leez, and Buddy of EDEN-ary, their in-house production team. Group members Hongjoong and Mingi also participated in writing the song. Seeing the song’s famous chorus’ beat being used in a song on a national reality show without any credit to the original artists, had ATINYs fuming.

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KQ Entertainment releases official position on ATEEZ's song being plagiarized

ATINYs had a troubling few days. First, they had to deal with the similarities in JYP Entertainment's new group, NMIXX's debut music video and then (G)I-DLE member Soyeon's SUN song introduced on My Teenage Girl.

Both South Korean and international fans trended hashtags and mass-emailed ATEEZ's agency KQ Entertainment over the alleged plagiarism issue. The agency released a press statement on February 28, addressing the issue and the events that had occurred in the span of a few hours.

“After a group of contestants performed the song 'SUN' in the first round of the finale for MBC’s 'My Teen Girl' on February 27, the agency received multiple reports through official channels and emails that the chorus melody of the song copied the chorus melody of ATEEZ’s ‘Wave,’ which was released in 2019.”

Hours after fans brought the issue to light, they saw that EDEN-ary, the production team behind ATEEZ’s songs, including Wave, was credited on the South Korean music chart, Melon. A major reason for ATINYs accusing CUBE Entertainment of plagiarism was because they failed to credit the original artists.

However, fans noticed SUN's revised credits on Melon mentioning EDEN-ary, and not the individual names the team is usually credited as. The act made fans believe that the agency was paying heed to reactions on Twitter.

Additionally. KQ Entertainment strongly denied any prior discussions regarding adding EDEN-ary to SUN’s credits in their statement.

“We would like to state clearly here that there was no prior discussion about this with Eden-ary or with us, the agency. With the goal of respecting the inherent work of creators, we ask people to refrain from reckless speculation and stop false reports in their tracks. Thank you.”

It became apparent to fans that SUN's credits were revised without discussion with the original artists. The statement fueled further anger as ATINYs demanded apologies from Soyeon, CUBE Entertainment, and MBC.

Sometime later, both CUBE Entertainment and Soyeon posted apologies, however, fans believe they contradict each other.

Fans believe MBC and CUBE Entertainment released the song despite having no consent from EDEN-ary, as they had requested re-modifications and opposed being credited for SUN.

Meanwhile, fans continue to demand better treatment for one of the most powerful fourth generation boy groups, ATEEZ, by trending hashtags on Twitter.