Wilber Pan’s new song asked to be taken down

Less than a week after the release of Wilber Pan’s new album, illi, the Taiwanese singer has come under fire for suspicion of plagiarism. Netizens are claiming that the track ‘Insomnia’ is similar to a song by a member of Highlight, Yong Jun-hyung. They felt that a line in the chorus resembled a song composed by Jun-hyung during an episode of the 2014 reality show Showtime and further pointed out that the song’s composer, Fang Zheng Gang, has a history of plagiarism.

The Korean idol’s company, Around Us Entertainment, have been informed of the matter and requested for the song to either be taken down or for Wilber to pay the royalty fees.

The company said that the song is the property of Highlight’s previous company, Cube Entertainment, and proposed two solutions, one being that Wilber’s company remove the song and the other being that they pay the royalties and copyright fee. However, they also said that this was an international matter which requires time to process and they would also need to speak to Jun-Hyung himself to confirm the details before taking any further actions.

Wilber issued out a message on his Weibo on Monday (Aug 14) apologising and claiming that he was shocked at the situation. He also added that he was doing everything he could to seek answers and resolve the matter.

The song composer, Fang Zheng Gang has previously mentioned that he was a fan of Highlight and might have subconsciously used one of their lines from their songs when composing. He apologised to the general public and to Wilber, saying that he felt guilty about everything and that he would take responsibility should anything happen.

Wilber’s company, Warner Music Taiwan has sent out an apology on Monday as well and said that they were working on taking the song down immediately.

Photo: PBE Media

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