“Count On Me, S’pore” Song Conflict with an Indian Composer Song of “We Can Achieve”
Screenshot via post by Pauline India on Facebook.
Recently, we might have heard the song that is similar to the popular National Song, “Count on Me, Singapore” which is the Indian version of “India” or “Mother India” and “We Can Achieve”. The owner of the copyright to “Count on Me, Singapore”, Singapore’s Minister of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) mentioned that they are investigating a potential copyright infringement by the creators of the 1986 song. As Pauline India, a publishing house which run an online shop selling Christian books and music then acknowledged some copyright issue in a Facebook post on Mar 13 which explained that the purchase of the copyright for the lyrics and music in 1999 is from one Joey Mendoza.
Screenshot via post by Pauline India on Facebook.
The person who apparently an Indian composer has identified himself who is Joey Mendoza claim that the song of “We Can Achieve” is written in 1983 and it was performed on May 1, 1983. The original music video by Pauline India has been taken down however, various version can still be found online. While Mendoza listed himself as a former composer, producer at Paisley Creative Studios.
Screenshot via video by Hugh Harrison on YouTube.
Later Hugh Harrison, “Count on Me, Singapore” composer respond that he has countered that whoever wrote “We Can Achieve” would have a hard time providing evident that he had indeed written the original song in 1983 and Harrison has so far publicly stayed clear of this issue online where the melody of the song had evolved over several months with input from both government, the agency and the musical team. Harrison lastly also pointed out that a subtle difference in the lyrics of both sing might be due to the fact that Mendoza had made a mistake while transcribing the lyrics when writing the Indian version.