Was "Moltiva" (Serbia's winning Eurovision song) a copy?

Recently on the internet there has been a fuss over whether Marija Šerifović's song Moltiva was a copy of another song, namely the Albanian song Ndarja by Soni Malaj (Ndarja means "separation"). I've made my opinion clear on this comments page on YouTube. These are comments regarding the video "Serbia's Eurovision Song Stolen", and you can see my comment below:

Note: I begin the comment with "Shame on who, sorry?", because at the end of the video, if you choose to watch it, the words "Shame on you!" appear, namely aimed at the Serbian Eurovision team that won.

The Sun Online has an article about this in Victoria Newton's Bizarre section: Serbia 'stole' winning song (look at the comments).

Soni Malaj herself has said in an interview (you can watch here, on YouTube (from the same channel that produced the above-mentioned video), "When I heard the refrain of the Serbian song, I froze". (The interview is in Albanian)

Well Soni, you lovely young lady, you need not feel so petrified!

The two songs sound similar in some parts, like the beginning of the chorus for instance, but are not identical. And in my opinion, there is really no big deal about the two songs sounding similar. Afterall, these are both songs from the Balkans, specifically, two nearby countries. For instance, with regards to traditional folk music, Serbian and Bulgarian folk songs sound similar, but of course, both have particular aspects as well. But most of all, like I said in my comment on YouTube above, both songs are about love, and love is a universal language.

If you haven't heard Serbia's winning song in this year's Eurovision in full, watch and listen here (YouTube, again!).

As for Soni's song, I'll send you to a Macedonian site, with an article (not in English!) in which the composer on the Albanian song, a Macedonian chap himself, admits similar tonality, but nevertheless confirms that it's not the same. You can read it here, plus you can listen to Soni's song in full there! ;-)

As you may have seen from the comments to the "Serbia stole blah blah blah…" video, people can't help themselves but bring recent history into the discussion. You'll find on the one end accusations of brutality and war crimes committed by one or the other side, and on the other end desires from the participants from both sides to commit brutalities and war crimes!

In my humble opinion - and wherever you are reading this post, I hope you remember what I have to say - these are comments that come from hooligans from among the Balkan nations. Many of them are individuals who are on the one hand so convinced of their nation's … innoccence in a recent conflict or two, and yet are on the other hand prepared to sacrifice that innoccence that they as members of that nation "naturally" have, to commit acts of appaling nature on the nation of their hatred. Of course, as an act of revenge, as has been the way of resolving many issues in the Balkans.

I suppose such verbal fighting is very amusing to Westerners, and I don't feel too patronised about that. In fact, I am relativley happy about them seeing what kind of idiots you can find in the Balkans, where I come from. I'm just unhappy about how some of my fellow Serbs can't help themselves but contribute to such appalling displays of hooliganism. :-(

Now, this is all appalling behaviour displayed by these individuals of the Balkan nations. However, one must remember that all of this dispicable behaviour does stem from the recent history. And in fututre posts, I will discuss this negative phenomenon. Hopefully, as understanding as I can be.

Such phenomena have made footholds on the internet. Fortunately though, wisdom has always had a wide foothold on the internet. Indeed, long before these participants of such internet fighting had even put the tip of their index finger on any of the buttons of the computer keyboard. Verily, the computer keyboard itself is a work of genius.

Considering how I began this post by debating how one romantic ballad was apparently a plagiarised version of another and then later mentioning the interethnic intolerance you'll find on the internet between Balkanians (this will not be my last post about such things, unfortunately), it's sad how two songs about love can bring about - indirectly, of course - so much manifestation of hatred.

I mean, since we now know about these two very pretty songs, why can't they be bridges of music between us Balkanians, in particular us Ex-Yugoslavs?

I wish all of you reading this post peace of mind and universal love!

PS: When I left that comment you can see above, I got responded to by someone who obviously didn't like me telling it how I saw it. One of the things we were discussing were … let's say, "animals"! :-D