(G)I-DLE’s Soyeon And CUBE Entertainment Release Apologies Following Plagiarism Accusations Of ATEEZ’s Song “WAVE”

“We would like to explain what happened.”

Following accusations that (G)I-DLE‘s Soyeon plagiarized ATEEZ‘s “WAVE” with her composition from MBC‘s My Teenage Girl, both she and CUBE Entertainment have stepped forward to apologize for the situation.

On February 27, the challenger team from the MBC survival program performed a song made by mentor Soyeon called “Sun.” Fans immediately pointed out that its chorus had a similar sound to ATEEZ’s 2019 hit track “WAVE.”

얘들아 이건 진짜 아닌 것 같아 중간에 박자 안 맞아서 살짝 끊었는데 들어봐봐 https://t.co/cmhPOodFWJ pic.twitter.com/rIxNzPkF5Q

— 짭스 (@stevejjabx) February 27, 2022

KQ Entertainment clarified in a statement that they were not aware of the situation and that Eden-ary, a producing team credited on both songs, did not know about it as well.

On the 27th, the Challenger Team’s stage, called ‘SUN’, was broadcast for the first round of the finals on My Teenage Girl. Afterward, we received multiple reports through the company’s official channel and mails from webmasters that the song’s chorus melody was similar to ATEEZ’s ‘WAVE’, which was released in 2019.

As the company was monitoring the related issue, they discovered that the company’s producing team, Eden-ary, was listed in the credits for ‘SUN.’

We want to clarify that we did not have any discussions before with the company or Eden-ary. In hopes of respecting creators and their unique works and in hopes that any misinformation can be corrected, we ask everyone to refrain from making unreasonable assumptions regarding the issue.

— KQ Entertainment

CUBE Entertainment, Soyeon’s company, stepped forward a day later to apologize for the issue, saying that they only realized the similarities between “Sun” and “WAVE” after the finale was broadcasted.

Hello, this is CUBE Entertainment. We would like to explain what happened on MBC’s My Teenage Girl regarding the song “Sun” and (G)I-DLE’s Soyeon. First, we sincerely apologize for the concerns caused by the production of the song “Sun.” Following the broadcast, through monitoring the episode, we recognized some of the similarities in the two melodies.

— CUBE Entertainment

They mentioned that Soyeon took steps to credit the original composer of “WAVE” after finding out about the similar melodies between her song and theirs.

Our artist immediately reached out to the original composer to explain the situation and apologize. In this process, especially since we admitted the similarities, we decided the song credits should be edited and properly given to the original composer. Soyeon discussed this option with the original composer and we asked the producers of the show to implement the credit change.

— CUBE Entertainment

CUBE Entertainment, however, also claimed that KQ Entertainment did not want to be credited. At this point, they had already reached out to the producers of My Teenage Girl to credit Eden-ary, but the show did not allow them to retract their credits list after discussions lengthened. Eden-ary was thus listed as a composer of “Sun” on Bugs despite not being involved in the making of the song.

An hour before the song’s release, however, the original composer’s agency declined our suggestion to be credited. We asked the producers of the show to undo the credit change but the change could not be applied and the song became released as-is.

— CUBE Entertainment

CUBE Entertainment ended their statement with an apology to Eden-ary for deciding to give them credits before reaching a settlement: “We would like to deeply apologize to the original composer, for adding the name to the song credits without coming to a full conclusion on the matter. We promise this will never happen again. Thank you.”

On her end, Soyeon also released an apology letter online. Like her company, she did not realize that her song “Sun” and ATEEZ’s “WAVE” had identical melodies.

Hello, this is Soyeon. As a producer, I apologize for causing this problem. It took me some time to become aware of the melody plagiarism controversy surrounding the song, ‘Sun,’ for My Teenage Girl.

— Soyeon

She extended her apologies to Eden-ary for their involvement, saying that she reached out to them after the finale aired on Sunday.

After the episode aired, I thought I should apologize to the original composer for some of the similarities that have been suggested. So I got in touch with the original composer, explained what happened, and apologized for it.

— Soyeon

She reiterated her fault in the matter and promised to be “more careful” in the future.

I sincerely apologize to the original composer, the artist, and fans for the confusion that I’ve caused. I promise to be more careful going forward. I’m sorry.

— Soyeon

Check out both songs below.