Adele accused of stealing Kurdish singer's 1989 song

Adele’s new album, 25, has smashed album sale records, selling one million copies in just ten days. But now, her song ‘Million Years Ago’ has been accused by fans of the late Kurdish-Turkish singer, Ahmet Kaya, claiming that the song is extremely close to ‘Acilara Tutunmak (Clinging to Pain)’.

The song laments the ordinary life that fame has taken from her, which is clearly quite a generic subject, but Turkish fans are taking this idea and have caused a buzz on social media sites claiming that the 27-year-old had ripped off the song which was released in 1989.

Kaya was a famous Kurdish singer from Malatya, Turkey, who died in November 2000 as an exile in Paris. Despite having released tracks in both Turkish and Kurdish, the singer was an outcast in Turkey as he identified as a Kurd of Turkey.

On hearing this, one YouTube user concluded: “Both are generic as f***, there are literally hundreds of other songs that sound just like it.”

Naim Dilmener, a Turkish music critic, accepted that there were some similarities between ‘Million Years Ago’ and ‘Acilara Tutunmak’ but not enough. “I don’t think Adele listened to Ahmet Kaya’s song and copied it deliberately. It’s an easy tune to figure out.”

Kaya’s widow also said that it was unlikely for a global superstar to carry out such action “however if she consciously did it, then it would be theft.”

A similar story has been heard of Jay-Z recently, with Arab fans outraged with him “stealing” flute samples from the late Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafez to use in his 1999 hit single, ‘Big Pimping’. He was cleared last month after a week of testimony, ruling that Jay-Z wasn’t liable for an “uncleared sample” that helped to make his hit.