French DJ and record producer David Guetta released his remix of “Hey Hey” from the original of the same name credited to Dennis Ferrer, a New York based DJ, remixer and producer.
A friend of mine alerted me to the house music song release. The original version by Dennis Ferrer has over 23 million views on YouTube.
The song features, very prominently, the familiar vocals of Shingai Shoniwa on it. The original and the remix is not just a sampling of the lyrics or melody. Both songs have the same vocal track in common.
The plot thickened when there seemed to be (for years) no acknowledgement of Shingai’s prominent role on the song, as lead singer. A visit to Defected Records pages on Instagram showed there is now some reference to Shingai as the vocalist.
Put yourself in Shinga’s shoes, the light blue designer high heels. You have to, because her team refused to comment on these developments. If the original deliberate oversight was painful, the pain has just been remixed.
It appears she was given a once-off payment for the use of her vocals by the record label. It seems the label were eager to distance themselves from Shingai although using and milking her distinct voice. How Bizarre!
Imagine the conversation: “We want your voice, Shingai, but we don’t want anyone else to know!” Or maybe it was done more clandestinely. They could have worked with someone they could be comfortable being associated with. It doesn’t make sense.
But that’s just half the story. A third, actually. The song itself blew up over the next decade and a bit. And then David Guetta has given it a new life. It will blow up again, on the basis of that voice. It raises 2 issues. 1. Common sense. 2. Fairness.
“Common sense” in that as Dennis Ferrer and the label smiled all the way to the bank for 13 years they should have realized and recognized Shingai’s part in all of this.
She works very hard. She is gifted with a powerful, distinct voice. She carries a tune. Her voice is an instrument. And she should be paid for this.
“Fairness” in that as David Guetta likely approached the publisher rights owner of the song they likely made it very clear they were buying the vocal elements of the song as is.
Shingai recorded for the Dennis Ferrer version. It seems David Guetta acquired permission to then receive and use the vocal track or Shingai’s voice and someone somewhere neglected to say: “Please Shingai may we use your voice and be identified with it.”
Imagine you are Shingai and as you go through life wherever you are you literally find out you have done a new song.
Problem is the publishing rights owner has not informed you. They have your voice. Neither has the remixer informed you.
As you literally visit their Facebook page (where there is the announcement) the remixer is getting good traffic and comments and interacting with his fans and family and milking the accolades.
Something like: “Thank you. Thank you everyone.” Nowhere does it mention a hard-working creative’s voice may be a key element to the melody and the feel of the song. Take away Shingai’s voice and it may not go as far.
The 23 million views on Youtube (on the original) are just a tiny sample of how far the original went and how far the remix may go.
There are streaming services like Spotify and others from which songs can be bought outright or artists are paid for any streaming beyond 30 seconds.
The streaming service can be an estimated 3 times over what’s on Youtube. When the song was released in 2010 there were also many who were still consuming music from CDs.
Defected records claim, finally that “the catchy vocals where sung by the amazing @Shingai,” bla, bla, bla.
They tell us “David Ferrer’s ‘Hey, hey’ has become known as one of the instantly recognizable anthems of modern house and has been played all over the world.” It has! Thanks to the vocal element.
And they should know! It has been used on Tik Tok videos and is well known and recognized as far as South Africa, a true monster hit that has stood the test of time. Surely a bittersweet memory for Shingai. But this has happened before to other musicians. There are similarities and there are differences.
One person holding music rights could end the pain today by being reasonable in sharing profits and royalties when an album or song has done better than expected in modest initial agreements. That way artists can grow with their body of work.
It means an artist’s voice or other work of art will bring someone else huge profits but no corresponding reasonable compensation.
People attribute the song to the artist whose voice they recognize but someone else harvests the super profits in the name of “our original agreement.” You really can’t be more selfish if you tried. But you will be surprised how common these practices are. Here are just a few examples.
The 2020 song “Jerusalema” by Master KG of South Africa became a Covid lockdown monster hit worldwide with a dance challenge. A prominent voice on the song was Nomcebo Zikode. She claimed she did not receive a cent for her vocals.
She said: “My voice and lyrics have transcended globally, but I still await what is due to me.” The song was reportedly number 1 in Belgium, Romania, Netherlands, South Africa and Switzerland. It was double platinum in Spain and number 4 on Billboard’s world digital song sales’ chart.
The original and the Burna Boy remix had over 441 million views in Youtube alone.
This information on “Jerusalema” was provided by The Guardian in UK. The record label is also sticking to “the original agreement.” At least Nomcebo can ride on the goodwill in future. Shingai has not been able to do that for 14 years now.
We have been here before, of course. South African artist Zahara died before getting a satisfactory resolution relating unfair compensation for her work with TS records.
She claimed unfair treatment when her life changed due to her newfound fame as a guitar playing powerful vocalist. Her album ‘Loliwe” did well in sales and tours. DJ Sbu and TK, co-founders of the record label, claimed that they did not owe Zahara anything.
They factored in recording companies and artist management payments. DJ Sbu and TK claimed they were sticking to ‘the original agreement.” But the truth is Zahara’s life had changed with the fame and fairer compensation should have reflected this and common sense should have prevailed.
There are bigger countries, like the same waters Shingai was swimming in with “Hey Hey” in the contiguous United States of America. 336 million people reside in the 50 states of America. They breathe oxygen and consume music. They pay for the later.
Billions worldwide are influenced by American popular music. DJs are behind the curating of music. One New York DJ used “Hey hey” as his signature tune. But the problem persists.
Toni Braxton and TLC made monster hits and albums in the 1990s. Braxton’s first album was self-titled with songs like “Breathe Again” and followed by “Secrets’ with songs like “Unbreak my heart.”
Anita Baker was supposed to sing the song “Love should have brought you home.” After listening to a demo by Toni Braxton, a pregnant Baker recommended the voice in the studio demo.
Braxton’s first 2 albums went platinum 8 times not to mention the many singles. She received US$1,972 for the 1990s album ‘Toni Braxton’ that generated estimated $170 million in sales.
She was drowning in debts from millions paid to her in advance of music releases to keep her bound to Record Labels. She files for bankruptcy twice. Braxton admitted to her own spending profligacy.
TLC was a popular girl trio in the 1990s. Their achievements fill history books. They also made estimated sales of around $170m. they claim only 1% of this reached their pockets.
After releasing songs like “Red Light Special” and “Waterfalls” they won a Grammy award and sold many albums.
In their Grammy acceptance speech instead of the cliched ‘We would like to thank and ABC’ Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas shocked the audience when she announced their impending bankruptcy saying that despite “selling 10 million albums they were as broke as can be.” They blamed their record label.
These examples show just some of the troubles artists face after landing fame for their talents as performers, composers and/or writers.
Going back to Shingai, one wonders, what was the motive of the record label in depriving her credit or recognition for a work of art from which they have harvested so much over the years.
What about common courtesy to inform the artist: “We are going to use your voice on a remix” or even asking: “Can we please use your voice on the remix?”
If the particular voice could be replaced surely it would have been? Is that in itself an admission of the power and the draw of the original voice? Shingai’s voice is intrinsic to “Hey Hey.”
Shingai’s heart must surely be breaking over this oversight. Not to mention neglecting to more fairly financially recognize the success of the original song.
Milking this in a remix means they are surely happy with her contribution. Songs are not always ‘music’ to the ears of the artists behind them. It’s remix of her original pain and the original oversight.
In a recent US case common sense finally prevailed when Sean Combs who uses and has used aliases like “Puff Daddy” or ‘P Diddy” who owns Bad Boy Records finally reassigned publishing rights to his former artists who for years complained about his alleged exploitation.
Two decades later Combs re-assigned publishing worth hundreds of millions to the artists and composers like Mase who though prominent in the early 2000s did not make as money as label owner Combs.
Mase was an outstanding rapper and writer. Combs asked that Mase sign an NDA in return for his publishing despite “the original agreement” argument.
There are local Zimbabwean examples of this. Someone made a song famous but the face behind did not realise as much as the owner of publishing due to lop-sided original agreements.”
Artists generally fear going on the record. Publishers can retain anonymity. It’s hard to confirm who owns a song. But the artist’s product goes for a song.
So as David Guetta remixes David Ferrer’s song featuring Shingai’s prominently without her express permission or financial recognition the pain goes to Shingai and the money to other people, surely.
Some fans are celebrating the song. But others feel conflicted, even while celebrating, because of the lack of recognition for Shingai’s voice. Shingai covered the song on her album “Too Bold.” The remix trend continues with David Guetta and now DJ Capo who has also released a remix.
The hardworking Shingai like other artists survives on her name and such recognition for her signature work is surely long overdue, to put it mildly. The intention was probably to reach a certain audience using a powerful voice but divorcing the voice from the person. A paradox. That’s only a third of the story.
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