(G)I-DLE's Soyeon addresses allegations that she plagiarised ATEEZ's 'Wave'

(G)I-DLE leader Soyeon has responded to the controversy surrounding ‘Sun’, a track she produced for the finale of My Teenage Girl.

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On February 27, MBC aired the finale of K-pop idol audition show My Teenage Girl, which saw its final contestants performing a number of original songs. The (G)I-DLE member, who was also a mentor on the show, had gifted the contestants a track titled ‘Sun’, which she composed and wrote alongside producer Poptime.

After the episode aired, some viewers took to social media to call out alleged similarities between parts of ‘Sun’ and the single ‘Wave’ by the boyband ATEEZ, which was released in 2019. The latter was produced by Eden, Leez and Buddy, who are members of the group’s in-house producing team, Eden-ary.

According to ATEEZ’s label KQ Entertainment, Eden-ary has since been belatedly credited on ‘Sun’. “The agency reviewed the information and found that in the credits of the song ‘Sun’, the agency’s producing team… was listed there,” it told MBN, as translated by Soompi. “We would like to state clearly here that there was no prior discussion about this with Eden-ary or with us.”

Both Soyeon and CUBE Entertainment later addressed the controversy on the night of February 28, and apologised for the controversy. “As a creator, I apologise for the controversy that has arisen. I belatedly recognised the partial melody similarity of ‘Sun’, the finale song from My Teenage Girl,” she wrote, per Allkpop.

“Regarding the similarities raised after the broadcast ended, I thought it was appropriate to apologise for even a partial similarity,” Soyeon added. “I informed the original composer of the song about the situation and apologised.”

CUBE Entertainment later noted that, after the broadcast, it immediately reached out to Eden-ary in order to credit the producers, while claming that KQ Entertainment had “opposed” this decision.

“But since the request to the production company had already been made, the song was released as it was without the agency’s opposition being reflected,” said CUBE, per Soompi. “We apologise for this situation in which the credits were modified without concrete discussion with the producer in question and their agency.”