There’s no doubt that Katy Perry “Rise” to the challenge in her latest picturesque music video, but what if the concept wasn’t hers to begin with?
The Jonas Brother’s dad took to Twitter on Saturday (6th July) to accuse the 31-year-old singer of plagiarism by showing a side by side comparison of the similarities between Perry’s music video and Olivia Somerlyn’s “Parachute”.
Kevin Jonas Sr. a.k.a. Papa Jonas, who is Somerlyn’s manager posted the stills with the caption, saying, “Love @katyperry new song but the video for #Rise is identical to @oliviasomerlyn #Parachute”. From the screenshots above, both singers are seen using pink parachutes as their main prop. The 2 are also shown dragging the parachute in another scene.
In the “Rise” music video, Perry faces her challenges head on by doing battle with a parachute. We see the pop star getting dragged out of a hangar, stuck on a cliff, and submerged in water. But ultimately, she goes from being a victim to emerging as a conqueror.
Following the accusation from Nick Jonas’ dad, a rep for Paul Gore, who directed Perry’s “Rise”, has denied the allegation with the following statement: “The filmmakers created a video for Katy Perry having never before seen the other video. Any similarity is pure coincidence.”
Interestingly, the director for Somerlyn’s “Parachute”, Ryan Pallotta, has backed Gore and even praised the director. “Paul Gore is a revered director and I’m sure he wouldn’t knowingly copy anything. It’s just a parachute — there are lots of them in prop houses and I would chalk this up to coincidence,” said Pallotta.
While this controversy has received a ton of reaction from fans from social media, it’s perhaps best to watch the music videos for yourselves and decide.
Watch:
Released in 2004, Somyerlyn’s “Parachute” was co-written and produced by Nick Jonas. In Perry’s defence though, Somyerlyn is hardly the first performer to use a parachute in a music video. Other pop stars who have previously used this concept include Christina Milian with “Rebel” as well as Rihanna’s “American Oxygen”.
Now here’s Perry’s version of “Rise”:
So what do y’all think guys? Are the comparisons absurd or are they too similar to ignore?
Sources: Perez Hilton, Gossip Cop.
