An American Band Claims ‘Masked Singer Australia’ Ripped Of Their Version Of ‘Bad Guy’
Decide for yourself.
An Arizona band has accused Masked Singer Australia of ripping off their cover arrangement of Billie Eilish’s ‘bad guy’, which was performed on the show by singer Kate Ceberano.
In a video uploaded to their YouTube channel yesterday, Halocene members Bradley Amick and Addie Nicole claim the show copied “note for note, beat for beat” their cover version of Eilish’s track, which they released “22 weeks” prior to the episode airing.
“Regardless of how they came across our version, someone with the music department of the show had to go over the intricate details of our recording,” says Amick. “There are things that aren’t even present in the Billie Eilish version, which includes distinct cord changes — the guitar, the bass lines, instrumental melodies, the vocals. Even the ad-libs and the shouting at the end.”
They present a comparison of their cover and Ceberano’s — which, it must be said, sound almost exactly the same minus the difference in key, which they claim was changed for Ceberano so she could disguise her voice from the show’s judges.
“There’s no way it could be construed as just inspiration,” Amick argues. “Someone is taking credit over there for work that we did. It’s work that took weeks — hours and hours to orchestrate, it’s not easy.”
The band also point out that their ‘bad guy’ version also contained a snippet of an original song they’d written previously.
“Sometime later you say, ‘I’m going to use that riff in that old song.’ Musicians do it all the time. Guitar players, you store your unused licks, but then sometimes later, you use it in a new song, and that’s what we did for ‘bad guy.’” Amick explains.
“We basically borrowed our own ideas, and we interjected into this, so it was part cover, part mashup of our own song. We’re using our riffs and melodies from our original content in this song. The Masked Singer Australia is basically purposefully and willingly stolen our licensed recording of ‘bad guy’ but they’ve inadvertently stolen from my original song, ‘Why Wait?’”
The band say they have looked into taking legal action against the show, and have set up a GoFundMe page to help them with legal costs.
Ceberano has previously discussed her song choices for the show, saying she’d picked tracks based on her daughter’s playlists; it’s not clear from the show’s format whether Ceberano herself arranged the cover, or whether it was someone from Channel 10. Music Junkee has contacted Channel 10 for comment.
Masked Singer Australia wrapped up its wildly successful season last week, with Cody Simpson (aka The Robot) emerging as the winner.
Watch the full video below.