Paxton Fielies, a contestant on the South African survival show ‘Idols‘, recently performed an English rendition of Rania‘s “Demonstrate“. That would’ve been very cool … except for the fact that when called out by Rania fans on not giving credit to the original performers, she claimed it as her own and promoted the fact that she’s selling it.
The kpop girl group Rania/BP Rania released a song on November 5th, 2015 which was titled ‘Demonstrate’. Recently on the show SA Idols, the contestant Paxton performed a song titled ‘Demonstrate’ which seen below is almost completely the same as the original performed RaNia… pic.twitter.com/w6XtTSBHef
— nick? (@ultboysrepubIic) November 13, 2017
…not only is the song being performed without credit to the original artists who sang it or the writers/composers, it is also being sold without any kind of credit. Please RT this and/or share the story to get the story out there. pic.twitter.com/3kgbgjaBgy
— nick? (@ultboysrepubIic) November 13, 2017
This is really what small fandoms gotta go through pic.twitter.com/swaGDmig3w
— ?: Karma Sunbaenim (@senochu) November 13, 2017
Following further outcry, Gallo Record Company seemed to clarify that it was approved by the composer and publisher.
Hi Fans – please note that Paxton's song rights were approved by the composer & their publisher. This version is in English & has different lyrics. It was presented to us as it has never been released in English before. All approvals are in place. TY for your support.
— Gallo Record Company (@GalloRecordsSA) November 13, 2017
That calmed things down a bit … at least until DR Music responded and said the composers did not approve it and they are looking into responses, including legal action.
DRM just posted this on the fan cafe about her “rights” to the song she had no rights pic.twitter.com/HU0jXfg5zb
— ?: Karma Sunbaenim (@senochu) November 14, 2017
After that, Gallo issued a formal statement on their site.
Please refer to our website for official press statement regarding Paxton and the song dispute. There are full letters from both Gallo as well as the music publishers on the website for public perusal. https://t.co/NivVxQaKbQ
— Gallo Record Company (@GalloRecordsSA) November 15, 2017
Most of it sounds believable and DR Music is a mess, so who knows?
That said, Gallo claim in the statement that Paxton is not on Twitter, and yet they addressed her account directly in the past on their account.
@GalloRecordsSA think we believing one lie after the other. So we guessing you "accidentally" tagged this fake account now? pic.twitter.com/tKGCSSPfuT
— BTS South Africa (@BTS_SouthAfrica) November 15, 2017
Makes you wonder if everything else in the statement is on the up-and-up or not.
That Twitter account belonging to Paxton is significant because while Rania fans know damn well the members didn’t compose the song and nobody has a problem with it being covered, Paxton claiming complete ownership of it and not giving any credit to the artist who already promoted it years ago was the issue.
We’ll see if DR Music has anything further to say on the matter.