Linda Leen and Stevie Wonder, or copyright, schmopyright
Posted by Charles in Blog Entry
A Latvian-born-now-living-in-America Hollywood Diva wannabe named Linda Leen has recently been making publicity rounds in Latvia after having recorded a new album of songs here in Liepaja with the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra.
In a country of two and a half million people, it’s not that difficult to become a celebrity. She did an FHM photo shoot and appeared here on the Latvian version of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2008. One Latvian website even called her (ridiculously) the Latvian Mariah Carey.
She has already posted a track from the new album on her website, a song called “Pamosties,” which translates (ironically, as you shall see/hear) basically to “Awakening.” In an article in Diena, the main Latvian daily newspaper, which singles out “Pamosties” as one of the best new ballads of the year, Leen goes on to speak about the inspiration for writing the song, claiming that it was the poetry of Inga Gaile, how the song is really the anchoring point for the entire album, how it’s really about a child-like openness to love and life and blah, blah, blah.
Now, I’ve seen the CD, held it in my hands, and even seen some of the printed sheet music that was used by the orchestra musicians. Linda Leen’s name is consistently listed as the author of the music. The problem is, she isn’t. It’s clearly a rendition of Stevie Wonder’s beautiful 1972 ballad, “You and I,” from the album Talking Book. It’s not a note-for-note theft, as the song takes some turns that Stevie Wonder’s song doesn’t, and vice-versa. But the changes and the melody of the verses is clearly not Leen’s.
First the Stevie Wonder excerpt, the first verse:
You and I excerpt
Now the same first verse of Pamosties, which is the very same track on Linda Leen’s website, but who knows how long it will be up there, as I’m not the only one who noticed the theft: the comment board on Diena’s website contains several posts by other people calling her out:
Not to get all meta, but my first trip to Leen’s website made me laugh because her desperation for fame is at once so transparent and pathetic. I wonder what sort of psychological hoops one must jump through to conclude that you can steal from someone as well-known as Stevie Wonder and nobody will notice. While she’s already getting called out on the carpet for it here, on the margins of comment boards anyway. She’s due to sing a concert with the LSO here at the end of the month; it’ll be interesting to see if she can continue getting away with it that long.
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It is so easy to manipulate with facts- just pick those, what make the article just like author wanted it to be “..and nothing else matters”. Choosing the ones about FHM and ” Dancing with the stars” is pathetic, as it is one month out of 15 years working as a musician- 3 studio albums, DVD “Live at opera”, sold out concerts during 2 years in Dzintari open air concert hall (3000 listeners), opera (1000), Daile theatre (3000), Kongresu nams(3000), LiepÄja (2000 listeners) and Ventspils this week, 6 national music prizes for debut album ” Let’s go insane”, 2 nominees for ” Chameleon”, collaboration with Kevin Robinson from “Simply red”, 10 years singing jazz, academic music education etc… And this is not desperation to be a superstar, it is just facts that are much more important than some magazine for men or tv show. Besides, a musician cannot announce him/herself as a star or diva, people do it themselves! I could buy all the newspapers, magazines, tv shows to write that I AM A DIVA, but that NEVER could help to fill those concert halls with people who want to hear my singing! Maybe for the first time, but not for 15 years!
Your tone of writing is very insulting and it is full of negative vibrations, very personal not professional. I will keep on writing my music and working on getting better in whatever I do. That has always been my way of living and working. And if you here some similar moments comparing my and Wonder’s songs, that can be just a coincidence! Why would anyone do that?! If you mean chord changes, then every second song on this earth is plagiarism. This kind of accusation should be said only when you prove it, otherwise it just turns out to be disrepute caused by manipulation.
Excuse me, if there were any mistakes in this text, english is not my native language. And I hope, you will have better and more interesting and useful things to do in a future.
p.s. by the way, I don’t live in Hollywood. I just were there for 2 weeks to work on my album Ziemasskaņas together with composer Lolita Ritmanis.
Well, I stand corrected on where Linda Leen lives. I understood that you had American financial support for the recording of that disc and incorrectly assumed you’d moved there. Nothing else I said was incorrect.
I cited two instances from your biography as an example of your celebrity in Latvia, and did not suggest it was the sum total of your career. I linked to your website, so whomever wishes to learn more about your work can see for themselves. I have no doubt that you have worked hard. But, get real: I didn’t write this blog entry to PROMOTE you. I wrote it to EXPOSE you. It is plagiarism. It is revealing that you reply about the chord changes, because indeed, chord changes are not protected by copyright. But you stole the chord changes along with the melody, and that is in fact a violation of Stevie Wonder’s copyright.
I made a call to ASCAP about this.
I cannot judge whether it is plagiarism or not, but of course it sounds very much like Wonder. Anyway, I would like to thank Charles for his observation, I trust in his high professionalism. The thousands who frequent Leen’s concerts does not mean we have a diva here, but rather what we have enormous educational and cultural problems in Latvia – at the same time the classical music concerts of high level often are much less frequented. Besides that, I think that participation of the professional orchestra in such projects certainly is not prestigious.
Beidzot kÄds zinoÅ¡s cilvÄ“ks publiski pateicis patiesÄ«bu par Å¡o “nekÄdu” dziedÄtÄju, kas nav ne dziedÄtÄja, ne komponiste un , saprotams, neko citu kÄ apzinÄtus vai neapzinÄtus plaÄ£iÄtus vispÄr nespÄ“j dzemdÄ“t. JÄbrÄ«nÄs tikai par tiem, kas Å¡o lÄ“Ä“n garlaicÄ«bu spÄ“j klausÄ«ties.