Striking similarities have been discovered between Daniel Baron’s 2016 hit single ‘Children Of The Sun’ and David Guetta’s new collaboration with Sia, ‘Light Headed’. This could become one of the biggest musical scandals South Africa has seen.
Guetta’s track appears on the DJ’s latest album ‘7’. The album was released in September 2018 and subsequently peaked at number 37 on the Billboard 200 chart. It has been found that ‘Light Headed’ contains an identical melodic, chordal and rhythmic similarity to what has become Daniel Baron’s most successful single to date.
In a video released onto YouTube, the two tracks are played simultaneously and the similarities clearly heard.
Daniel Baron is involved in a legal battle with the famous French DJ and that his legal team
This led by Stephen Hollis of Adams & Adams. They’ve made initial contact with Guetta regarding the copyright infringement. However, Daniel confirms that there still hasn’t been a response from the DJ or his team. Guetta’s local publisher, Geoff Paynter Music Publishing, confirmed that a letter of demand was sent to David Guetta last year.
“We confirm we received a letter of demand in December 2018 which was immediately forwarded to our sub-publisher principles. They confirmed that they, in turn, forwarded the correspondence to their publisher principles,” Geoff Paynter said in a statement.
After hearing Guetta’s infringing track shortly following its release late last year, Daniel appointed top South African musical professor Jean Zeidel-Rudolf to conduct a musicologist report which analyses the two tracks and has subsequently ruled that plagiarism is clear.
The similarity can be heard in the main hook melody of Guetta’s song
This make an appearance seven times throughout the song. The notes and rhythmic positioning of the notes are of exact resemblance to the chorus melody of Baron’s song. ‘Light Headed’ even shares the same root key signature of C-Major, identical to Baron’s ‘Children of The Sun’. This result prompted local royalty society SAMRO to freeze the royalty stream to the track until the matter has been dealt with.
More info about ‘Children Of The Sun’
‘Children Of The Sun’ was written, recorded and produced by Daniel Baron in early 2016. This was two and a half years before Guetta released ‘Light Headed’. Baron claims that he remembers coming up with the main chorus melody even a year prior adding that he has a recording on his phone from 24 June 2015 when he started writing the song.
The song became a massive hit around South Africa. It reached the number one spot on multiple radio stations and streaming charts around the country. It was the fifth most played song on South African radio in 2016. The song was also one of Baron’s first songs to break into the international music scene with radio play and streams across Africa, Europe and Asia.
‘Children of the sun’ was even featured on the viral YouTube channel TrapNation – garnering over 1 million views. It was also one of the biggest tracks in the country when Guetta performed at Ultra South Africa back in 2017.
Daniel Baron and his legal team are preparing for a court case
He simply wants to be credited as a songwriter on Guetta’s track. “I was so shocked when I heard Guetta’s new song for the first time. It felt surreal to hear the tune that I came up with years ago,” Daniel says.
“I’ve always been a fan of him and I look up to him as an artist/producer, so I actually feel rather bewildered and slightly proud that he’s used my melody. I am not the type of person that would want to start a fight with him. All I want is to be credited as a co-writer.”
Daniel says that it’s difficult for him to see one of his idols use his body of work without his permission. It also says a lot about the quality of South African music today. “South African music is making the world sit up and listen,” Daniel says.
“While it hurts seeing someone copy something you put your blood, sweat and tears into without making contact and sampling it legally, it’s incredible to see that massive international acts are inspired by local music – and that’s a real honour.”
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