Mnet washes hands of Hyo-ri plagiarism furore

Controversy-prone K-pop singer Lee Hyo-ri has once again found herself at the center of a plagiarism row. 

This time around, criticism might not subside as fast since not one but five tracks from her latest album, “H-Logic,” face plagiarism allegations. 

Lee Hyo-ri

Lee recently acknowledged through her fan website that the accusations from the overseas singers are true. She said her record company, Mnet Media, is cooperating with the plaintiffs to make right what Bahnus Vacuum -- the songwriting group that fraudulently composed the songs in question -- made wrong. 

Claims of plagiarism came out less than a week before her album was released in April after several fans reported similarities between tracks from Lee’s album to songs from a number of overseas artists. 

The majority of the tracks under scrutiny came from relatively unknown musicians based in Canada. 

Lee’s “Bring it Back”; has been paired to the Canadian girl band Cookie Couture’s “Boy, Bring it Back,” “Feel the Same” to Canadian singer Melanie Durrant’s song of the same name; “I’m Back” to “Son Insane,” by Canadian singer Lil Precious; “How Did We Get” to American R&B singer Jason Derulo’s “How Did We”; and “Memory” to British band Second Person’s “The Alphabet Song.”

The original authors of Lee’s copycat tracks reportedly got wind of the songs when copies of the album went viral. 

Since the controversy, the 31-year-old singer has faced fierce criticism from fans and the media. But others say Lee isn’t to blame.