Plagiarism accusations surrounding German band Nekta’s “Here’s Us” (2009) and K-pop singer IU’s “The Red Shoes” (2013) have been persisting for a decade. Now, the two parties are making different claims about who failed to reply to whom 10 years ago.

The plagiarism scandal regarding IU’s hit “The Red Shoes” started in October 2013 when the song dropped. Some alleged that the melody resembled “Here’s Us,” released by the German band four years ago, and the claim started circulating in online communities,

IU’s management at the time, Loen Entertainment, said that the “song’s key parts which are the chorus, first verse and the bridge toward the end, as well as the overall melody, composition and instrumental are arrangement are completely different,” while adding some melodies from “Here’s Us” and the second verse of “The Red Shoes” may sound similar.

Cho Young-chul, the music producer behind “The Red Shoes,” also issued a statement on May 12 this year.

“I saw an article that wrote the German band Nekta contacted us back then regarding the plagiarism issue, but that is not true. Nekta’s legal counsel sent an email to Loen Entertainment at the time, so Loen and its legal counsel responded with an email covering the basic facts and including other official documents. [Nekta’s] side stopped responding, and the case came to an end. The emails and official documents will probably still remain at the former agency and legal firm.”

However, music publisher Nordend Entertainment Publishing, which worked with Nekta to release “Here’s Us,” recently uploaded a statement on its website refuting claims cited in Korean media.

“With great astonishment we have taken note of various articles in Korean media [e.g. TenAsia and Soompi] in which it is claimed that those responsible for the production had contacted us or the artist group Nekta at the time and clarified the issue regarding ‘copyright infringement,'” it reads.

“This does not correspond to the truth! To date, neither the artist IU nor any official representative of LOEN Entertainment or Edam Entertainment has contacted us or responded to our multiple attempts to contact them.”

Nekta also spoke on the issue for the first time in a decade.

“We contacted [Loen] in 2013 to settle this issue, but none of our emails or contacts were answered. Those records are still preserved on our side. After seeing Producer Cho Young-chul’s claims, we contacted the email address stated on the Edam Entertainment [IU’s current management] website on May 28, 2023, and we still have not received a response.”

Both parties claim that they have made numerous efforts to contact each other 10 years ago and recently but have not received a response.

On Wednesday morning, IU’s agency Edam Entertainment released some of the emails Loen Entertainment sent to Nordend Entertainment Publishing in 2013 via Loen’s Lawyer.

“We refute Nekta’s claim that we did not respond to them by revealing some of the emails from the time,” Edam’s statement on Wednesday morning reads.

“We have confirmed that Nekta has recently sent us another email. We have gone through the legal procedures to go over this crucial case and have sent a response to Nekta on June 20.”
 
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BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]