Turks accuse Adele of 'stealing' Kurdish song
Turks accuse Adele of 'stealing' Kurdish song
Blog: Turkish music fans are accusing the British singer of plagiarising Kurdish icon Ahmet Kaya's famous song, Acılara Tutunmak.
2 min read
08 Dec, 2015
Adele has been accused of plagiarising Ahmet's hit song [alAraby]
Adele, the mononymous English singer and songwriter, has been accused of plagiarism by Turkish music lovers, who claim that one of the tracks on her latest album is a rip-off of a song by a famed Kurdish musician.
Critics claim that Adele's track, Million Years Ago, from her album 25, bears an unmistakable resemblance to a tune by Ahmet Kaya named Acılara Tutunmak ["Clinging to Pain"], which was recorded in 1985.
The song's release has created a storm on social media in Turkey, with some users accusing the 27-year-old performer of "stealing" the melancholic tune from Kaya, who died in France in exile 15 years ago.
"Adele has stolen a song from us," one user named Esra Nur Aydogan wrote on Twitter, sharing a picture of a man hanging a Turkish flag on his balcony in protest.
Kaya's wife, Gulten Kaya, also weighed in, saying it was unlikely for a global star like Adele to do such a thing.
"However, if she consciously did it, then it would be theft," she told Turkish daily Posta.
While some Turks accused Adele of stealing the song, others pointed out that Kaya had been banned from singing in Kurdish in the country:
Critics claim that Adele's track, Million Years Ago, from her album 25, bears an unmistakable resemblance to a tune by Ahmet Kaya named Acılara Tutunmak ["Clinging to Pain"], which was recorded in 1985.
The song's release has created a storm on social media in Turkey, with some users accusing the 27-year-old performer of "stealing" the melancholic tune from Kaya, who died in France in exile 15 years ago.
"Adele has stolen a song from us," one user named Esra Nur Aydogan wrote on Twitter, sharing a picture of a man hanging a Turkish flag on his balcony in protest.
Kaya's wife, Gulten Kaya, also weighed in, saying it was unlikely for a global star like Adele to do such a thing.
"However, if she consciously did it, then it would be theft," she told Turkish daily Posta.
While some Turks accused Adele of stealing the song, others pointed out that Kaya had been banned from singing in Kurdish in the country:
|
One fan has attempted to highlight the similarities with a YouTube video combining the two songs:
|
|
||
by others to third-party websites such as YouTube |
Adele's third studio album has sold millions of copies in both Britain and the US, smashing records on either side of the Atlantic.
More in Opinion
