Maia Hee

I know this is totally random and has nothing to do with anything, but lately real life has kept me so busy I haven't had time to stop and smell the roses, never mind blog about it. Fortunately for me, being back at work means a lot of lazy hours and Internet access, so I decided to take some time out to solve this little puzzle that's been bugging me. I have to make it very clear though, that I was motivated by pure curiosity, so please don't make the mistake of thinking I'm a fan of any of the “artists” featured here!

Most South Africans, whether they liked it or not, have heard this song (I really don't expect you to watch the whole thing, I know I couldn't):




I (and I suppose most other Nicholis Louw victims) always assumed it was a Nicholis Louw original. After all, it's so bad, why would he want to copy it from somebody else?

Imagine my surprise when I saw this on TV the other day:



What's going on here? The Nicholis Louw song came out before the T.I. Featuring Rihanna one, so it's not very likely that he copied them. But it's even less likely that they even know who he is, let alone use his song as a sample in their's. So, who copied who? After a bit of research I found this:



From what I understand, this song, Dragostea din Tei, is the original. It's sung by a Romanian group called O-Zone. Their music video is quite funny as well, for some reason it can't be embedded, but you can watch it directly on YouTube. It seems the O-Zone song was used as the foundation for both the Nicholis Louw and T.I. versions. But they were not the only ones! It has been covered in one form or another by a bunch of other people, including a guy called Haiducci:



But why? What is it about this silly song that people like so much? And who originally wrote it for O-Zone? Or did they copy it from somebody else as well? You have to wonder: "Is there no originality left in the world?" If there is, pop music is definitely the last place to look for it...