The recent copyright issue has sparked debate about the similarities between the two songs' lyrics
Mabel Tiwaa Rockson of Hallelujah Voices, the gospel music collective behind the 2004 song "Defe Defe," has reacted to the alleged copyright infringement by Team Eternity.
In a recent conversation with Hello FM, she expressed her displeasure with Team Eternity's approach on settling the issues surrounding the alleged copyright infringement. She noted that she had already made plans to compose a remix of her 2004 song, but had to halt it due to the momentum Team Eternity's version was gaining.
"I heard my children singing the song and thought they had coined something like that. However, it turned out a group had sung it. I wanted to do a remix, but I had to hold on because their song was out there and doing so well," she said.
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According to the singer, she got the hint of the issue after the executive producer, Kwame Mickey, informed her that he had called the group out for sampling the song without permission.
"It was later that Kwame Mickey reached out and said he had called out Team Eternity on social media and that if he had told us, we would have advised him to give it to God, but he chose a different approach," she added.
When asked if the group had contacted her to settle the issue, Mabel admitted that the group had reached out to her husband, and pleaded with him to handle the case in a Christ-like fashion.
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"So they called my husband and told him that we are Christians and should handle it as Christians, not like those who sing hiplife. I felt offended when my husband told me about what they said," she said in the interview.
The recent copyright issue has sparked debate about the similarities between the two songs' lyrics. 'Defe Defe', performed by Hallelujah Voices, was written by Osuani Afrifa, executively produced by Kwame Mickey, and released in 2004. In contrast, Team Eternity's version of 'Defe Defe' was released in 2004. The two songs have different instrumentation and lyrics, but they do share some similarities, such as the phrase "Defe Defe" in the choruses.
The phrase "manhyia Nyame an anka ɔbonsam ayꞓ me defe defe" was first used by Hallelujah Voices in a 2004 song, while Team Eternity's 2024 version is "manhyia Nyame an anka y'ayꞓ me defe defe."
