Director Go Gook Jin's Demand That Roy Kim Admit To Plagiarism Helps Reignite Controversy

When Go Gook Jin, producer and director of the Korean Broadcasting System program "Mamma Mia!" called out Roy Kim on the microblogging website Twitter earlier last week, it helped to reignite a plagiarism controversy surrounding the song "Spring, Spring, Spring" ("Bom, Bom Bom") that had begun back in April.

Previously accused of stealing from Kim Kwang Suk's "Where The Wind Blows" and A-ha's "Take On Me," when a new round of accusations arose that Roy had plagiarized the ukulele version of Acoustic Rain's "Love is Canon," Go was miffed.

"Is this a mistake or is this a chance?" the director asked on Twitter.

"I want to make it into a chance. I haven't seen anyone who curses their senior artists turn out well."

The second part of Go's tweet is most likely a reference to sarcastic comments Roy made on July 13, the day before Go's Twitter tirade, towards Jang Bum June of the group Busker Busker for a different plagiarism accusation concerning his song "Anthem."

"I wrote this song after being inspired by a video of Busker Busker′s Jang Bum June singing at a wedding," Roy said onstage, according to the publication eNEWS

"Some members of the public, however, criticized me for that. I took [the main part] from the 'Wedding March' and that means I didn′t take it from [Jang Bum June′s song]. I did write this song. If you still don′t think it′s right, I′ll mention Jang Bum June every time I sing this song."

Roy later apologized for the incident.

Whether it was for the "Anthem" onstage incident or the new comparisons of "Spring Spring Spring" to "Love is Cannon," Go had certainly seen enough

"Just admit that you plagiarized and start over from the beginning," he tweeted to Roy.

"Then people would understand. What does this [mean for] the other artists? Your pathetic excuses are really lame."

Roy, who is he winner of the fourth season of the reality singing competition "Superstar K," appeared on Go's show "Mamma Mia" back in April, prompting some online commenters, to question whether the director had a grudge towards Roy for something that had happened on the show.

Roy's record label CJ E&M Music claims that "Spring Spring Spring" was written months before the ukulele version of Acoustic Rain's "Love is Canon,"

"It's definitely not plagiarized," a record label representative told the website Soompi on Monday. "Roy Kim has never heard of that song before."

K-pop fan Aznlad33 feels that Go is the one who should apologize.

"For a [producing director] of a major broadcasting station to diss someone like that especially through Twitter, it's in my opinion a very unprofessional and childish thing to do," she wrote on Soompi's comments board.

"If you really have to say negative or critical, tell it to the artist and his company."

Roy announced on Thursday that he will be returning to college at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business in Washington D.C. in August.

He apologized on Monday for the enduring plagiarism controversy.

"I′m very sorry for causing so much trouble," Roy said. "I′ll work hard not to disappoint my fans with good music."

"I′m happy I′ve been able to reach out to so many people through music," he added.

Tags
mama mia
Roy Kim
plagiarism
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