Wanna One’s Agency Releases Official Statement On Teasers Being Similar To “Hedwig And The Angry Inch”

Previously, there was controversy over Wanna One’s teasers for their studio album, “1¹¹=1(POWER OF DESTINY).” The controversy is that the concept of the teasers and the group’s logo for this album resemble the theme and logo of the musical, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

The musical’s original creator John Cameron Mitchell who also played the lead role, posted a video on his Instagram on October 30. In his post, he commented, “Thoughts on Kpop band @wannaone.official’s use of #hedwigandtheangryinch/Platonist/Taoist imagery as well as @stephentrask’s song title #theoriginoflove. An ancient myth is fair game to use as a metaphor for a band and its fans coming together but I’m sad to think that their managers felt the need to borrow so flagrantly without attribution and flatten the myth (much like my face in this video).”

In the video, he turns on Wanna One’s teaser as he expresses his opinion on the issue. He says things like, “I’ve been bummed out today,” “It felt a little bit rude because they’re also borrowing the title,” and “It seems like they’re not telling the full story of the myth.

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A post shared by John Cameron Mitchell (@johncameronmitchell)

Wanna One’s agency soon released an official statement about the controversy.

Read Swing Entertainment’s official statement below:

“Wanna One’s concept teasers are based on the idea of the ‘origin of love,’ which is one of the topics introduced in Plato’s book ‘Symposium.’

“The group’s symbol for this album is also based on the same idea, and we added Wanna One’s own unique concept along with other ideas like destiny, the binary system, and infinity.

“During the review process prior to creating the album, we confirmed that there are no problems regarding copyright issues because the album is based on an ‘idea’ that was inspired from a universal value that all humanity must share, which comes from the philosophical concept of love’s origin.

“That specific value or idea became popular after being borrowed in the song, ‘Origin of Love’ in the musical/film ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch.’

“Since there can be many interpretations on the idea of love’s origin, we also respect the ideas of John Cameron Michell, who created ‘Hedwig.'”

What do you think about this issue? Check out Wanna One’s teasers here.

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