N-Day song composer denies plagiarising tune

The Najib administration has chosen “Janji ditepati” as the National Day theme for 2012.—File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 — The “Promises Kept” song is still at the processing stage and has yet to be finalized for the 55th Merdeka Day celebrations on August 31, said its composer Jasnie Mohd Yaakub.

He said it was his original work with two other composers, Arman E Six and Aye. Thus, he denied the similarity of the song with a spiritual song from Indonesia.

“This song is not finalised yet. We work on the song stage by stage until the final stage. If we are approved for the final stage, then, we will finalise it.

“The inspiration of the song came all of a sudden, (we) did not follow any songs,” he told a media conference which was also attended by Arman and Aye at Erama records headquarters here, today.

Jasnie, who is also the producer and music director at Erama Records, explained that he only became aware of the existence of the song that was claimed by certain parties to be almost the same with “Promises Kept” yesterday and heard its melody today.

However, he did not deny that there were some similarities in terms of chords and rhythm but not the melody.

“In any part of the world, there are songs using pop rhythm, rock, doremi and many others. Any composer who tries to evaluate the melody of ‘Promises Kept’ will find it is certainly not the same (with the other song),” he explained.

The controversy on the similarity was raised by a blogger several days ago, besides it (Promises Kept) being uploaded on YouTube.

Jasnie pointed out that it was not they who uploaded “Promises Kept” on YouTube as it was not finalised yet.

On the early composition of the song, he explained that they took two days to produce the melody based on the lyrics given.

“At first, the song was composed in ‘hip hop’. We have not produced the song, only it had been heard during the launch of ‘Raise The Flag’ campaign recently,” he said.

Until today, he said the arrangement of “Promises Kept” had been changed four times.

Asked whether this issue could affect the music composition process and the possibility of changing the song, Jasnie said: “Certainly, not.”

“I will not change it. I stick with my stand. If I change the song, people would say, ‘So, it is true he copied the song, now he changes it’. But it depends, if there is a request from any party,” he said.

He said he hoped that the explanation could answer all the questions raised and asked that the song not be compared with other songs.

Jasnie is a professional song composer and has been involved in composing songs for local artistes like Noraniza Idris, Hazama and Mila and has won a few music awards at national level. — Bernama