Does that hot new new Israeli song sound a little…familiar? Feeling like you may have heard that song somewhere before? You’re not alone.

It all started with the case of Netta Barzilai vs. the White Stripes. The “Stripes” claimed that Netta’s “Toy” sounded a lot like their song “Seven Nation Army” – and have since reached a settlement with Netta and her people.

But it goes much deeper than that, according to a fantastic article by Ben Shalev in yesterday’s Ha’aretz.

Ben identifies a number of popular Israeli songs, and points out how they sound strikingly similar to songs from the United States. Omer Adam vs. Ed Sheeran. Shlomo Artzi vs. George Harrison. Eden Ben Zaken vs. Amy Winehouse. The list goes on and on.

From the article:

“…after more than 60 years of pop (if we start with Elvis), during which millions of songs have been recorded using the 12-tone Western scale along with a limited number of chords that recur in popular songs, have we exhausted all of pop music’s melodic and harmonic possibilities? Is the number of original songs that can be written finite? And are we approaching the limit, or have we already passed it?”

Is This What Beyoncé Would Sound Like in Hebrew? A Wave of Israeli Hits Strike a Familiar Note by Ben Shalev | Ha’aretz, June 12, 2019

Coincidence…or plagiarism? You decide…then let us know what you think in the comments.

Full article:
Is This What Beyoncé Would Sound Like in Hebrew? A Wave of Israeli Hits Strike a Familiar Note by Ben Shalev | Ha’aretz, June 12, 2019