Former IZ*ONE member Choi Ye Na gets caught up in a serious issue because of her new song.
The music video of Choi Ye Na’s new song “Hate Rodrigo”, which was released on June 27th, has been set to private.
Earlier on June 29th, Xsports News reported that “Hate Rodrigo” music video had been switched to private at the request of Olivia Rodrigo, the singer who was directly mentioned in the song.
However, it is still unknown whether the reason was the direct use of the expression “Hate” in the song title or the copyright issue due to certain scenes in the music video.
In fact, the song has been controversial since even before its release. Olivia Rodrigo, who is directly referenced in the song, was born in 2003 and debuted as a singer in 2021. In comparison, Choi Ye Na is four years older than Olivia as she was born in 1999. Additionally, Choi Ye Na made her debut as a member of IZ*ONE in 2018, making her a senior of Olivia Rodrigo in the music industry.
In this situation, controversy arose when Choi Ye Na used the strongly negative word “Hate” to refer to Olivia Rodrigo, who is younger than her and less recognized in Korea. She was also criticized for using the hashtag “#HateRodrigo” in the dance challenge on social media for the album promotion. Moreover, suspicions of plagiarism were also raised regarding the similarities between Choi Ye Na’s MV scenes and concepts and Olivia Rodrigo’s music video.
The issue seems to have become even more serious as Olivia Rodrigo is actually preparing for her comeback starting with the release of her new single “vampire” on global music platforms on June 30th.
Of course, Choi Ye Na only wanted to express her admiration with cute jealousy towards her idol Olivia Rodrigo through the lyrics of the song, like “I hate all the kids who are doing better than me!”. At the showcase to commemorate the release of her single album on the 27th, the female singer also selected Olivia Rodrigo, together with Lee Hyo Ri, BoA, and G-Dragon as people she wants to resemble. She said, “Olivia Rodrigo is really pretty and a perfect figure whom I admire so much”, adding “I maximized my affection and admiration for that person using an ironic expression”.
Choi Ye Na’s agency Yuehua Entertainment has not released any position regarding the controversy.
Source: Wikitree
