Separated at Birth? Recent Singles by Alicia Keys and OneRepublic
Written by: Paul Lorentz
Both Alicia Keys and singer-songwriter Ryan Tedder of the band OneRepublic have faced accusations that, well, if their songs were toilet paper, they could be labeled as containing at least 35% post-consumer recycled materials. This spring, Kelly Clarkson called Tedder out on the more-than-passing-resemblance between her 2009 hit single “Already Gone” and “Halo” by Beyonce, both Tedder originals. Meanwhile, our good friend Money Mike has noted here and elsewhere the Force MD’s impression Keys pulls off on “That’s How Strong My Love Is”, a highlight of her latest (and best yet) record The Element of Freedom. But in the case of a couple of recent singles, it seems that Tedder and Keys have independently arrived at roughly the same song, roughly simultaneously. Though Keys’s song was released and charted modestly as a single last year while OneRepublic’s is only just now starting to scale European charts and isn’t yet receiving any U.S. airplay, the albums the songs are taken from appeared within weeks of each other last fall. Neither artist could fairly accuse the other of even accidental plagiarism. Both are great songs, but it’s hard for me, when I’m singing along with one, not to sing the words and melodies of the other over it. I’d love to hear Alicia Keys co-fronting OneRepublic with Ryan Tedder on a mash-up of these songs.
Alicia Keys “Doesn’t Mean Anything”
OneRepublic “Marchin’ On”
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The beginning of the OneRepublic song sounds similar to whoever creates the songs they use on Friday Night Lights too.
This video uses the Timbaland mix of the song which appears as a bonus on the deluxe edition of Shock Value II (it's also currently a Top 10 hit in Germany), and it sort of disguises the similarities between the two songs' intros. I'm not at all familiar with the music from FNL, but I did hear this song being used in the background for a promo of the cable (Lifetime?) series Army Wives earlier this year.