Japanese Media Reports on Alleged Plagiarism in Crayon Pop's "Lonely Christmas," Agency Responds

Dec 03, 2013

Girl group Crayon Pop is currently embroiled in yet another plagiarism controversy, this time involving a Japanese song. Crayon Pop had previously come under fire for plagiarizing outfit concepts, which they have refuted, and now the Japanese media has brought up the plagiarism issue once again, but for a different reason.

Japan’s J-CAST News recently reported, “The beginning to Crayon Pop’s new song has been criticized as being exactly the same as that of the theme song for ‘Lupin the Third,’ an anime famous even in Korea.”

The report quoted Japanese netizens who pointed out that the introduction to “Kkurismas” (“Lonely Christmas”) is similar sounding to the theme song of famous animation “Lupin the Third.”

This has become a hot topic amongst online netizens, the majority of whom have said that the first ten seconds are remarkably similar.

Meanwhile, Crayon Pop’s agency, Chrome Entertainment, has been baffled by the sudden plagiarism controversy. Speaking to Newsen on December 3, they said that “We are trying to contact the composer for ‘Kkurismas.’ It is difficult to determine if there has been any plagiarism at this point in time.” Their new song was composed by Kim Yoo Min, who also wrote “Bar Bar Bar.”

Crayon Pop rose to popularity with their hit track “Bar Bar Bar,” and even then faced accusations of plagiarizing outfit concepts from Japanese girl group Momoiro Clover Z. Previously, the plagiarism issue had circulated only within Korea, but now with the topic of plagiarism being raised up in Japanese, the past is sure to be brought up as well.

Here is the theme song for “Lupin the Third” for your reference: