It starts with the opening bars of “The Snow and Ice Dance“, the song’s critics say, then it builds: an eerie sense that the song – an official melody of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing – is a knockoff of the Disney hit “Let It Go”, from the movie Frozen. But it’s not just the Games that are being approached with a facsimile mentality; it’s the songs, too.
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The YouTube video of The Snow And Ice Dance, the third of 10 numbers released by the city’s bid committee in May even before it was awarded the hosting rights on July 31, has been met with a frosty reception by netizens who noted the similarities.
“I almost sang ‘Let it Go!’??”wrote Zeta Fera”.
The reason they both sound so alike, is because both ballads begin with an eight-beat piano intro, identical tempos, share similar instruments and use the same prelude chords, according to a Chinese magazine. A reader named Tujiang Elapse said parts of the song were similar, but not all, whereas another reader, Moxin, lamented that China did not lack creative people, so why had it copied the song?
Neither the Beijing Games organising committee nor Disney has responded to media requests for comment. She did not immediately respond to the faxed questions.
This isn’t the first time China has been involved in a plagiarism row. Last month, Chinese film The Autobots was said to have plagiarised from the 2006 Disney and Pixar film Cars.
“Construction of the sites and future snow-making, they say, could damage an important “ecological barrier” that helps Beijing – a victim of chronic air pollution – ward off sandstorms”.
Second is “Come and Ski on the Great Wall”, performed by the male duo Lu Han and Tao Zhe.
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Temperatures in northern China typically drop below freezing in winter, but the region is dry, meaning that much of the snow and ice at the games will nearly certainly have to be artificial.
