The legal consultant of the Egyptian Composers Society has decided to cancel the registration of a large number of songs in her records because their tunes were allegedly borrowed from international songs without attribution to their owners, according to the Egyptian magazine Akhbar Al Nujoum.
The step came after musician Omar Khairat claimed that the tunes of songs for Amr Diab, Hisham Abbas, Ehab Tawfiq, Latifa, Mohammed Fuad, Mustafa Amar, Amer Munib and Bahaa Husni, were borrowed from songs by international singers and released under the names of local composers.
Khairat claimed that the tune of Diab’s song Khallast Fik Kulil Kalam from his recent album, which was attributed to the composer Amr Tantawi, was borrowed from a song by the Indian duet Kaia Mini, and that the song Albi Ekhtarak came from Santana’s song Smoz, and that the song Baad Al Laiali, attributed to the composer Khaled Ezz, was ripped off from the Irish band West Life’s My Life.
Composer Amr Mustafa supposedly borrowed the tune of Diab’s song Ya Habibi La from the singer Craig David’s Seven Days, while Sharif Taj’s Tamalli Maak and Amr Mustafa’s Baatiref allegedly got their tunes from Mark Antonio’s songs.
The Tunisian singer Latifa’s song Baheb Fi Gharamak, which released under composer Salah Al Sharnubi’s name, was allegedly originally the Algerian Rai singer Cheb Husni’s Sebtni Wahdani. Sharnubi supposedly also borrowed the tune of Hisham Abbas’s song Ahla Ma Fik from the Turkish singer Mustafa Sandal’s Sandana Bella.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Fuad’s Awqat Ya Dunia was supposedly quoted from the British singer Cat Stevens, and Meshina Ketir allegedly came from Melody’s song Enjaja.
In Mustafa Amar’s song Ya Habibi, Riyad Al Hamshari allegedly borrowed the tune from Paris Carnival. Hussein Mahmoud, the composer of Ehab Tawfiq’s song Ya Rmushha, supposedly got the tune from the old Latin tune Shalala. In Mohammed Munir’s Laeila Wahda, Amr Abu Thekra allegedly got the tune from Madonna’s song Froze.
Mahmoud Lutfi told the magazine that according to musician Omar Khairat, a former member of the society board, a committee will be formed to investigate these claims and suitable steps will be taken.
“The society allows singers and composers to benefit from the international music on the condition that the tunes are attributed to their owners, but until now, nobody has done that,” added Lutfi – Albawaba.com
