Agency addresses plagiarism related to new track from (G)I-DLE's Soyeon

Soyeon during a scene in MBC's K-pop audition program "My Teenage Girl" [ILGAN SPORTS]

(G)I-DLE member Soyeon's agency released a statement Monday regarding unauthorized use of credits on a song.

"We deeply apologize for all the confusion we have caused in the process of releasing the song 'SUN,'" said Cube Entertainment. "After we became aware that a part of the song's melody was very similar to another song, the artist [Soyeon] relayed the situation to the original songwriters immediately and apologized."

The agency continued, "In this process, as both Soyeon and the original songwriters have recognized the similarities of the songs, we thought that the credits needed to be altered. So Soyeon asked the original composer's agency about having the composing team's name included in the credits section. One hour before the song's slated drop, the songwriters' agency gave a negative answer to Soyeon's offer. We then asked for a change of credits [to take out the original songwriter's name] but that note did not go through and the song was released."

"SUN," which dropped Sunday, is a song co-produced by Soyeon and Pop Time as part of the MBC’s girl group audition program “My Teenage Girl.” Soyeon is a regular panelist on the show acting as one of the judges.

But after criticism that a part of the song's melody was similar to the chorus of boy band Ateez's song "WAVE," Soyeon's agency practically admitted to plagiarism by adding Eden-ary, the composing team led by singer-songwriter and producer Eden, onto the song's list of credits. Eden-ary has composed many of Ateez's songs including "WAVE."

Eden-ary's agency KQ Entertainment said on Monday that Soyeon's agency "had not discussed this with Eden-ary or its agency."

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]