If you were paying attention to Eurovision 2024 at all, you very likely heard Croatian artist Baby Lasagna and their second place song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”. And if you’re a metal fan, then you might’ve picked up that it sounds a little like Pain‘s 2021 single “Party In My Head”.
Pain mastermind Peter Tägtgren weighed in on the similarities during an interview with Laureline Tilkin of Tuonela Magazine, basically saying he doesn’t care. Tägtgren said he thought “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” was a fun song and that Baby Lasagna did actually take part of a Pain, that can only mean people’s appetite for metal is growing.
“I didn’t even hear it in the beginning, and [comments about it] started popping up everywhere. People were, like, ‘Oh, I think Croatia stole your song,’ blah, blah, blah. And I was, like, ‘What? I don’t hear it.’ I just hear ‘woo hoo hoo’ [in the chorus], but you hear ‘woo hoo hoo ‘ in ‘I Love It Loud’ with Kiss since ’81 or whatever. So, for me, I was fine with that.
“And then, actually, our bass player explained, ‘Well, he has the same kind of figure of singing.’ Whatever. I don’t care. I thought it was fun. And I think it’s good that they put in a little bit metal in this Eurovision thing, like they did with the Lordi 15 years ago. When you get it right, it gets popular. So people want more metal.”
Tägtgren later added: “I mean, I have no problem, like I said. I’m honored, even though it doesn’t say my name on it. But you can maybe feel that he heard ‘Party In My Head’ before. So I’m totally fine with that.”
You can check out both songs below. The whole industrial metal vibe is certainly similar, but calling this plagiarism seems like a step too far.
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