The Historic Clash Between A K-Pop Queen And Britney Spears, The Princess Of Pop

Though many global fans might think that the correspondence between K-Pop and American Pop started only recently with the international explosion of Hallyu’s popularity, there were many “you just had to be there” moments between these two industries, even back in the early 2000s. The “clash” between Britney Spears and Lee Hyori is one such iconic history.

It happened in 2006 when Lee Hyori was already the hottest name in the country. Her debut solo album, Stylish, came out in 2003, and created such a massive wave of interest for the singer among the public, that it was dubbed the “Hyori syndrome.” The media also nicknamed 2003 “The Year of Hyori.” So, when her second studio album Dark Angel made its way to the market in February 2006, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that all eyes were on her.

The first lead single from Dark Angel was “Get Ya,” a funky electro-pop song. Only after a month into the album’s release, the song was hit with a plagiarism accusation from the team of none other than Britney Spears.

The representatives for the writers who worked on Spears’ song “Do Somethin'” wrote to Lee Hyori’s team, claiming that “Get Ya” was partially plagiarized from their track. It was the first time a copyright holder had formally complained to a K-Pop artist regarding plagiarism issues. The copyrights for Spears’ song in South Korea were handled by Universal Music Korea, who had notified the “Do Somethin'” composers about the issue. After receiving Lee Hyori’s song through them, three out of the four composers agreed that the track was “significantly influenced” by their work and that there were “some parts that constitute[d] plagiarism.”

Britney Spears in the “Do Somethin'” music video | @britneyspears/YouTube

Lee Hyori in the “Get Ya!” music video | @1theK/YouTube

Lee Hyori during her comeback show in 2017

It was a while ago, but I had thought my second album would also do well. However, when that [incident] happened, I was hurt and I realized things always don’t go the way you want them to. It feels like I got the chance to get stronger during that time.

—Lee Hyori in 2017