Government was ready to take legal action over Count on Me copyright claims: Edwin Tong
SINGAPORE — The Government was prepared to initiate legal proceedings over ownership claims of national song Count on Me, Singapore, said Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong on Monday (April 5).
He was responding in Parliament to a question by Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai (PSP) on the actions the Government has taken to protect Singapore’s copyright on the song. Indian composer Joey Mendoza had claimed he wrote the nearly identical We Can Achieve three years before Count on Me, Singapore.
Mr Tong said the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) first received feedback that We Can Achieve had been featured in several videos, with some apparently of Indian schoolchildren.
The song was noted to be “almost identical” to Count on Me, Singapore, with some minor differences. The students appeared to be expressing love for their country and the song was not “disrespectfully treated”, he said.
Subsequently, the publisher of We Can Achieve acknowledged that the song appeared to have been "substantially copied", apologised and removed the videos from their platforms.
“We did not believe that there was any ill will or malice intended, and hence accepted their apology,” said Mr Tong.
Later, Mr Mendoza claimed that he had written We Can Achieve in 1983, which the ministry found to be an “untenable assertion”, given its similarity to Count on Me Singapore.
“If his claim was right, it would be a direct affront to our own ownership and interest in the national song Count on Me, Singapore,” said the minister.
“We thus pressed Mr Mendoza to substantiate his claims. If he could not, then he should withdraw them. We were prepared to initiate legal proceedings, if necessary, to protect our position.”
In addition, the ministry undertook “extensive fact-checking” to refute Mr Mendoza’s claims, said Mr Tong, and obtained evidence of Mr Hugh Harrison composing Count on Me, Singapore.
In response to MCCY’s request for proof, Mr Mendoza retracted his claims and informed his associates and their networks to remove the song.
“We have thus let the matter rest on this basis,” said the minister.
250 orphans are ‘living proof’ my song came before ‘Count On Me Singapore’: Indian composer
An Indian composer accused of copying a patriotic Singapore anthem is sticking to his claim that he was the tune’s original author.
Days after Singaporeans discovered what seemed to be an Indian remake of 1986’s Count On Me Singapore, songwriter Joey Mendoza, whose real name is Joseph Mendonza, responded to copycat accusations in a statement to Coconuts last night, saying he wrote his song, We Can Achieve, three years earlier. Who could prove the truth of his claim? Two-hundred-and-fifty people, Mendoza said.
“The only living proof I can offer you are the 250 orphans who first learnt it in 1983 and all the orphans at Bal Bhavan in the successive years too,” the 58-year-old said, referring to an orphanage in Mumbai.
Mendoza, who studied at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, says We Can Achieve was not committed to a recording until 16 years later in 1999 by Christian record and books store Pauline India. A video of the song as well as a clip of an Indian teacher and students performing it were both removed after Singaporeans found them and began complaining that it was purloined.
Count On Me Singapore was said to be composed by Canadian Hugh Harrison. It debuted on Singapore’s National Day in 1986. Harrison wrote online that he had worked with other musicians on the song, including Singaporean jazz musician Jeremy Monteiro, and disputes any claims otherwise.
According to Mendoza, he wrote We Can Achieve in 1983 while he was teaching music at the Bal Bhavan orphanage in Mumbai. A total of 250 orphans performed the song that year, Mendoza said. He also said that he only learned about Count On Me Singapore days ago.
After We Can Achieve was recorded and released on cassette in 1999, Mendoza said he was only paid INR2,000 (S$37 or US$27). The original tapes, he said, were swept away in the 2005 Mumbai floods.
Mendoza recognized there are similarities between both songs, namely the words “India” or “Mother India” versus “Singapore,” but thought that it could be a coincidence since there was no internet back in the ‘80s.
“There was no way I or the other composer could know that things would look so similar. (And no INTERNET ACCESS) With due respect to the other composer there are so many phrases that musically were connected and it could be all coincidental,” he said.
The Bal Bhavan orphanage has yet to respond to inquiries.
Harrison also said in a separate comment yesterday that it was “impossible” that the song existed before 1986, adding that Mendoza “would have a hard time producing any evidence of creation, performance or production of the song in 1983.”
Pauline India stepped in Sunday to say that they were unaware that the song was a Singaporean anthem when they licensed it from Mendoza in 1999. The song was also included in a 2012 playlist titled We Stand United on SoundCloud, which compiled a list of patriotic songs.
“We would like to inform you that we had produced this song with the help of Mr. Joey Mendoza who sold the copyright of the lyrics and music to us, claiming he owned it. We were not even aware, that this song has been the National Day Song of Singapore since 1986,” the Christian bookstore chain wrote online.
Count On Me Singapore is now owned by the Singapore government. The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth had originally said last week it was investigating potential copyright infringement before striking a softer tone, saying it was happy the song “struck a chord” with the people of India.
Ex-PR exec demands man in India to rescind ownership claim
It was reported earlier that Indian public relation firm, Pauline Communications, came forward on Sunday (14 Mar) pointing out that it had bought the rights to the music and lyrics of Singapore’s national song ‘Count on Me Singapore’ from a man by the name of Joey Mendoza who claimed to have owned it.
The Indian version of the Singapore national song is titled differently under a new title “We Can Achieve”. In it, the lyrics were changed with all mentions of “Singapore” transcribed to “India” or “Mother India”. Multiple plagiarized versions of the song were found to have been uploaded online sometime between July last year and January this year.
“Thereafter it has been used in different schools, colleges and B’Ed institutes (in India), in different variants and has been used widely and well. It’s a very popular song here and loved by all,” Mendoza claimed.
“In 1999 Pauline (India) decided to produce the original version since there were many variants going across. Singapore released its national song ‘Count on Me Singapore’ in 1986… With due honour to Singapore, I was not aware of this song until two days ago.”
He then added, “With no intention to hurt anyone’s feelings, I want to lay the fact clear that I’ve written the ‘We Can Achieve’ song.”
On Mendoza’s Facebook page, he wrote that he is a former composer and producer at Paisley Creative Studios and studied at Musicians Institute (MI) located at Hollywood, California.
PR agency commissioned by SG govt to write national songs
The song ‘Count on Me Singapore’ was, in fact, written by Hugh Harrison who was working for the McCann-Erickson advertising agency in the 80s. McCann-Erickson was commissioned by the then Ministry of Culture of Singapore to come up with a campaign for the 25th anniversary of self-governance of Singapore in 1984.
Mr Harrison told the media in 2013 that after he wrote the first song, ‘Stand Up For Singapore’, which was a hit among Singaporeans, he left for a job in Hong Kong. While there, he got word that the Singapore government wanted a new song “that was directed at the country’s youth”.
He said, “On the plane from Hong Kong to Singapore, I had a vision of young people standing together resolutely shouting to their leaders ‘You can count on us!’” And so ‘Count On Me Singapore’ was then written over a weekend, he recalled. He went on to write his third Singapore national song, ‘We Are Singapore’.
When Mendoza in India started claiming that he was the one who has written the song, netizens began to inform Mr Harrison about it on his YouTube channel.
Today, Mr Harrison informed everyone on his YouTube channel that he has written to both Mendoza and the executive of Pauline Communications in Mumbai requesting that “certain actions be taken to address Mr Mendoza’s false claims to be the original creator of this song”.
“I will let you know if and when I get a reply and how I intend to respond should corrective action not be forthcoming,” he told everyone. “Thank you all for your kind words and support.”
He deemed Mendoza has “illegally” repackaged the Singapore national song, “Count on me Singapore” as “We Can Achieve”.
Mr Harrison also added that Pauline Communications clearly has the right to sue Mendoza for “selling them a song to which he had no rights”.
“The fact that he is claiming now in 2021 that he is the original creator of the song implying I copied the song from him is a direct attack on my integrity and professionalism and for that he could be sued for slander and/or libel,” Mr Harrison noted.
“As it stands now, I have written him and given him the opportunity to rescind his claim and am awaiting his response.”
Government was ready to take legal action over Count on Me copyright claims: Edwin Tong
SINGAPORE — The Government was prepared to initiate legal proceedings over ownership claims of national song Count on Me, Singapore, said Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong on Monday (April 5).
He was responding in Parliament to a question by Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai (PSP) on the actions the Government has taken to protect Singapore’s copyright on the song. Indian composer Joey Mendoza had claimed he wrote the nearly identical We Can Achieve three years before Count on Me, Singapore.
Mr Tong said the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) first received feedback that We Can Achieve had been featured in several videos, with some apparently of Indian schoolchildren.
The song was noted to be “almost identical” to Count on Me, Singapore, with some minor differences. The students appeared to be expressing love for their country and the song was not “disrespectfully treated”, he said.
Subsequently, the publisher of We Can Achieve acknowledged that the song appeared to have been "substantially copied", apologised and removed the videos from their platforms.
“We did not believe that there was any ill will or malice intended, and hence accepted their apology,” said Mr Tong.
Later, Mr Mendoza claimed that he had written We Can Achieve in 1983, which the ministry found to be an “untenable assertion”, given its similarity to Count on Me Singapore.
“If his claim was right, it would be a direct affront to our own ownership and interest in the national song Count on Me, Singapore,” said the minister.
“We thus pressed Mr Mendoza to substantiate his claims. If he could not, then he should withdraw them. We were prepared to initiate legal proceedings, if necessary, to protect our position.”
In addition, the ministry undertook “extensive fact-checking” to refute Mr Mendoza’s claims, said Mr Tong, and obtained evidence of Mr Hugh Harrison composing Count on Me, Singapore.
In response to MCCY’s request for proof, Mr Mendoza retracted his claims and informed his associates and their networks to remove the song.
“We have thus let the matter rest on this basis,” said the minister.
Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/government-was-ready-take-legal-action-over-count-me-copyright-claims-edwin-tong
HEH.
Steven Lim gor gor invites Indians to make Singapore their home!
LOL epic mocking of that chao ah neh by Kim Huat:
Joey Mendoza has changed the profile picture on his FB page.
Meek MCCY issues conciliatory response, considers case closed. Can they disgrace Sinkies any further?
Newsflash: public enemy no.1 Joey Mendoza is a fucking serial plagiarizer. ;)
https://m.facebook.com/theonlinecitizen/posts/10159373280811383?comment_id=10159373604386383
Original Video:
Video mounted on Joey Mendoza's Youtube channel:
Video mounted on publisher Pauline India's Youtube channel:
Pauline India even had the fucking gall to assert it owned the copyright in the song:
Even Tiongland news have lee-ported this plagiarism incident, really is xia suay to the max!
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/MOESTG3l6HFVkIVPa4FtVg
250 orphans are ‘living proof’ my song came before ‘Count On Me Singapore’: Indian composer
An Indian composer accused of copying a patriotic Singapore anthem is sticking to his claim that he was the tune’s original author.
Days after Singaporeans discovered what seemed to be an Indian remake of 1986’s Count On Me Singapore, songwriter Joey Mendoza, whose real name is Joseph Mendonza, responded to copycat accusations in a statement to Coconuts last night, saying he wrote his song, We Can Achieve, three years earlier. Who could prove the truth of his claim? Two-hundred-and-fifty people, Mendoza said.
“The only living proof I can offer you are the 250 orphans who first learnt it in 1983 and all the orphans at Bal Bhavan in the successive years too,” the 58-year-old said, referring to an orphanage in Mumbai.
Mendoza, who studied at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, says We Can Achieve was not committed to a recording until 16 years later in 1999 by Christian record and books store Pauline India. A video of the song as well as a clip of an Indian teacher and students performing it were both removed after Singaporeans found them and began complaining that it was purloined.
Count On Me Singapore was said to be composed by Canadian Hugh Harrison. It debuted on Singapore’s National Day in 1986. Harrison wrote online that he had worked with other musicians on the song, including Singaporean jazz musician Jeremy Monteiro, and disputes any claims otherwise.
He said today that he had reached out to Mendoza and Pauline India regarding the former’s “false claims to be the original creator of this song.”
According to Mendoza, he wrote We Can Achieve in 1983 while he was teaching music at the Bal Bhavan orphanage in Mumbai. A total of 250 orphans performed the song that year, Mendoza said. He also said that he only learned about Count On Me Singapore days ago.
After We Can Achieve was recorded and released on cassette in 1999, Mendoza said he was only paid INR2,000 (S$37 or US$27). The original tapes, he said, were swept away in the 2005 Mumbai floods.
Mendoza recognized there are similarities between both songs, namely the words “India” or “Mother India” versus “Singapore,” but thought that it could be a coincidence since there was no internet back in the ‘80s.
“There was no way I or the other composer could know that things would look so similar. (And no INTERNET ACCESS) With due respect to the other composer there are so many phrases that musically were connected and it could be all coincidental,” he said.
The Bal Bhavan orphanage has yet to respond to inquiries.
Harrison also said in a separate comment yesterday that it was “impossible” that the song existed before 1986, adding that Mendoza “would have a hard time producing any evidence of creation, performance or production of the song in 1983.”
Pauline India stepped in Sunday to say that they were unaware that the song was a Singaporean anthem when they licensed it from Mendoza in 1999. The song was also included in a 2012 playlist titled We Stand United on SoundCloud, which compiled a list of patriotic songs.
“We would like to inform you that we had produced this song with the help of Mr. Joey Mendoza who sold the copyright of the lyrics and music to us, claiming he owned it. We were not even aware, that this song has been the National Day Song of Singapore since 1986,” the Christian bookstore chain wrote online.
Count On Me Singapore is now owned by the Singapore government. The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth had originally said last week it was investigating potential copyright infringement before striking a softer tone, saying it was happy the song “struck a chord” with the people of India.
https://coconuts.co/singapore/lifestyle/250-orphans-are-living-proof-my-song-came-before-count-on-me-singapore-indian-composer/
There has been scant coverage of this saga by the local media, it appears only Shin Min reported it thus far.
Congee's lawyer is a fucking inept politician, there I said it.
Chief PAP online lapdog Calvin Cheng goes blasting away yet again. Hope he gets compensated well for his donkey-assed diatribes.
MCCY = Ministry Condones Copying (by) Yeendia!
Ex-PR exec demands man in India to rescind ownership claim
It was reported earlier that Indian public relation firm, Pauline Communications, came forward on Sunday (14 Mar) pointing out that it had bought the rights to the music and lyrics of Singapore’s national song ‘Count on Me Singapore’ from a man by the name of Joey Mendoza who claimed to have owned it.
The Indian version of the Singapore national song is titled differently under a new title “We Can Achieve”. In it, the lyrics were changed with all mentions of “Singapore” transcribed to “India” or “Mother India”. Multiple plagiarized versions of the song were found to have been uploaded online sometime between July last year and January this year.
Subsequently, Mendoza, responded claiming that he, in fact, is the composer of the song. He said that the original version ‘We Can Achieve’ was first written at Bal Bhavan institute in Mumbai in 1983. He even claimed that this song was publicly performed in India on 1 May, 1983 (‘SG national song plagiarism fiasco: Man says he wrote song in India while ex-PR exec says he wrote it for SG‘).
“Thereafter it has been used in different schools, colleges and B’Ed institutes (in India), in different variants and has been used widely and well. It’s a very popular song here and loved by all,” Mendoza claimed.
“In 1999 Pauline (India) decided to produce the original version since there were many variants going across. Singapore released its national song ‘Count on Me Singapore’ in 1986… With due honour to Singapore, I was not aware of this song until two days ago.”
He then added, “With no intention to hurt anyone’s feelings, I want to lay the fact clear that I’ve written the ‘We Can Achieve’ song.”
On Mendoza’s Facebook page, he wrote that he is a former composer and producer at Paisley Creative Studios and studied at Musicians Institute (MI) located at Hollywood, California.
PR agency commissioned by SG govt to write national songs
The song ‘Count on Me Singapore’ was, in fact, written by Hugh Harrison who was working for the McCann-Erickson advertising agency in the 80s. McCann-Erickson was commissioned by the then Ministry of Culture of Singapore to come up with a campaign for the 25th anniversary of self-governance of Singapore in 1984.
Mr Harrison told the media in 2013 that after he wrote the first song, ‘Stand Up For Singapore’, which was a hit among Singaporeans, he left for a job in Hong Kong. While there, he got word that the Singapore government wanted a new song “that was directed at the country’s youth”.
He said, “On the plane from Hong Kong to Singapore, I had a vision of young people standing together resolutely shouting to their leaders ‘You can count on us!’” And so ‘Count On Me Singapore’ was then written over a weekend, he recalled. He went on to write his third Singapore national song, ‘We Are Singapore’.
When Mendoza in India started claiming that he was the one who has written the song, netizens began to inform Mr Harrison about it on his YouTube channel.
Today, Mr Harrison informed everyone on his YouTube channel that he has written to both Mendoza and the executive of Pauline Communications in Mumbai requesting that “certain actions be taken to address Mr Mendoza’s false claims to be the original creator of this song”.
“I will let you know if and when I get a reply and how I intend to respond should corrective action not be forthcoming,” he told everyone. “Thank you all for your kind words and support.”
He deemed Mendoza has “illegally” repackaged the Singapore national song, “Count on me Singapore” as “We Can Achieve”.
Mr Harrison also added that Pauline Communications clearly has the right to sue Mendoza for “selling them a song to which he had no rights”.
“The fact that he is claiming now in 2021 that he is the original creator of the song implying I copied the song from him is a direct attack on my integrity and professionalism and for that he could be sued for slander and/or libel,” Mr Harrison noted.
“As it stands now, I have written him and given him the opportunity to rescind his claim and am awaiting his response.”
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2021/03/17/ex-pr-exec-demands-man-in-india-to-rescind-ownership-claim-while-mccy-says-imitation-of-song-best-form-of-flattery/
HAMISH BROWN FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A fine display of cowardice on MCCY's part. Suck it up and move on, coz we can't afford to offend India!