Accused of copying BTS’s album cover image, an Ecuadorian female singer claimed that she had never seen it before
The representative of this female artist stated that the cover would be changed to prevent controversy, but their explanation has disappointed BTS fans.
The issue of ‘plagiarism’ is one of the most sensitive topics in the field of creativity. Sometimes the similarities are merely coincidences, but other times they are so evident that the audience finds it difficult to accept no matter what the explanation is. A recent example was the case of female artist Nikki Mackliff, who has been accused of plagiarizing BTS’s album cover.
Nikki Mackliff is a female singer from Ecuador who just published the song ‘Amor A Medias.’ However, many netizens instantly spotted the obvious similarities between the cover image of this song and the album cover of BTS’s ‘Love Yourself: Answer’ from 2018, which was published in 2018.
Specifically, the cover photo of ‘Amor A Medias’ used a stylized heart-shaped drawing. Except that the ‘copy’ was in a different color and the brushstrokes were less elegant than the original, it was precisely like BTS’s album cover and didn’t differ by a single stroke.
BTS’s fans then immediately informed Nikki Mackliff of this similarity. After that, the singer posted an Instagram story to explain the incident. Accordingly, the female singer and the design team said they “had never seen this BTS’s album cover,” but they agreed to edit it to avoid misunderstanding.
The text of Nikki Mackliff’s message about the incident is as follows:
“To all BTS fans, I realize it’s important to speak up about what’s going on right now.
I want you to know that my team and I have never seen the BTS album cover before.
My team has redone a new design now. To the group’s fandom, as an artist, I have great respect for art, and I’m so sorry for causing this.
Over the next few days, we’ll change the new cover for ‘Amor A Medias.’”
She also pinned the story to her Instagram profile with the title ‘Explanation/Clarification.’ In these stories, Nikki Mackliff once again confirmed that she and the team would change the cover image of the song. At the same time, she also expressed her gentle attitude and praised ARMY as “a great and strong fandom.” The female singer also thanked ARMYs for sending messages of sympathy and support to her in this situation.
Although Nikki Mackliff’s team was calm and accepting of the cover changing, BTS fans were not satisfied with her explanation. BTS fans found it difficult to believe as she claimed she had never seen BTS’s album cover before, but the two heart designs were identical.
Many netizens believed that this was definitely not a coincidence. They suspected that this team was just trying to PR for the song by ‘plagiarizing’ BTS’ album cover, then quickly withdrew and apologized after the matter was settled. Many people have submitted incident reports to Big Hit Music.
