After releasing “Hate Rodrigo” as a “homage song”, Yena is embroiled in allegations of trying to use Olivia Rodrigo for fame.
On June 27th, Choi Yena held a press conference at Blue Square Mastercard Hall in Hannam-dong, Seoul, to announce the release of her new album “HATE XX”. When asked if the title track “Hate Rodrigo” refers to pop star Olivia Rodrigo, Choi Yena replied carefully without directly mentioning Olivia. However, when asked another question, Choi Yena said that Olivia Rodrigo is my object of admiration.
For a moment, Choi Yena clearly took caution in directly mentioning Olivia Rodrigo while introducing her new song. Although Yena called “Hate Rodrigo” a homage, there was a possibility of misunderstandings and controversies, and this issue has become even more heated after the song’s release.
With “HATE XX” officially released at 6 PM (KST) on June 27th, Yena finally made her comeback after 5 months. However, she was caught up in various noises, and the MV for title track “Hate Rodrigo” was even hidden for a while.
“HATE XX” is an album in which Choi Yena challenges various emotional expressions. Moreover, the female idol personally participated in the writing and composing of “Hate Rodrigo”, which is said to express a “cute jealousy” and admiration for Yena’s object of envy, Rodrigo.
It is evident that Choi Yena made an effort to realize her own style. She confidently stated, and the intended message was understood to some extent. Although the word “Hate” was used, it was emphasized repeatedly that the song was not meant as a diss, but rather as an “ironic” expression of respect or admiration.
However, the public and the industry’s perception of Yena’s “homage” song is not positive. It was criticized as the worst form of “faint pastiche” (imitation) by a critic, and there were ridicules that the method of homage was clumsy. Some even criticized the Yena’s agency for not being aware of the potential issues until the planning and completion of “HATE XX”.
On the other hand, Choi Yena’s agency, Yuehua Entertainment, belatedly gave an explanation after rumors emerged that Olivia Rodrigo’s side requested to take down the “Hate Rodrigo” MV. According to Yuehua, their move was due to “a possibility of trademark infringement, portrait rights infringement, and copyright infringement in some scenes of the music video”, adding that Olivia Rodrigo’s side made no request. Later on, the MV was re-uploaded, with images of Olivia either taken out or blurred.
In fact, when it comes to homage to a work or original, there are aspects that require the permission or consent of the original creator. Therefore, it can be said that mentioning Olivia Rodrigo in the song “Hate Rodrigo” is essentially the same and can be problematic in many ways. Even apart from the homage controversy, the word “HATE” can be interpreted with negative connotations for those who see and hear it, so it remains to be seen how convincing the argument of it being a hidden meaning of “cute jealousy” will be, especially from the perspective of overseas fans, including Olivia Rodrigo. Furthermore, Choi Yena even mentioned that the lyrics that evoke controversies were written by herself and said, “I think it could be an interesting point.”
Olivia Rodrigo, who was born in 2003, started to expand her activities as a singer through the Disney Plus original series “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” in 2019. She later went on to achieve huge success in the music field, despite her young age.
Interestingly, Olivia Rodrigo released her new single, “Vampire”, on June 30th, which coincidentally comes right after Yena’s “Hate Rodrigo”, raising some suspicions about Yena’s agency attempting for a PR stunt.
Source: Daum
