How Abraham Afewerki's Song "Meley" Taught Ethiopian Musicians An Important Lesson

Legend Abraham Afewerki, RIP. Photo Credit: AAFM

Why Jacky Gosee's Meley Song was removed from YouTube


A year after Jacky Gosee's successful song of "Fiyameta", which the melody and chorus was taken without consent from Eritrean singer Fitsum Yohannes' classic "Nasanet" (Independence) song, he announced he would release another copied Eritrean song without consent, this time, belonging to the late artist Abraham Afewerki.

When the Abraham Afewerki Foundation For Music (AAFM), a non-profit organization entrusted with maintaining the legacy and intellectual property of the late artist, learned of Jacky's imminent release of "Meley", they were upset, and rightly so.

In their Facebook page, the organization described Jacky's action as "total disrespect to the legacy of Abraham Afewerki and akin to pure theft." And warned the Ethiopian pop singer that AAFM and Abraham's family will legally pursue the matter.

Despite the threat of legal action, Jacky went ahead and released the song on his YouTube channel. Within hours, the song had tens of thousands of views, and dozens of comments from Eritreans and Ethiopians pointing out his blatant copyright violation.

Left with no choice, ELLA Entertainment Records, an authorized company that distributes Abraham's music, filed a complaint with YouTube to remove Jacky's song on grounds it infringed on Abraham's intellectual property. The request was obliged and all postings of Jacky's Meley were deleted from YouTube.

Soon after, AAFM made another Facebook post to explain why Jacky's song was removed:

YouTube postings featuring Jacky Gosee’s unauthorized version of Abraham Afewerki’s Meley are all removed from YouTube. This includes video posted by Jacky Gosse himself. The video he posted was supported by advertisements generating revenue for himself piggybacking on somebody else’s original work. Thanks to those who helped us with cleaning up the infringing videos. Any more postings of the song will be dealt with in the same manner.
The issue is not closed and our lawyers are working the matter.

Again we reiterate the fact that this has nothing to do with Jacky Gosee the person, but it all has to do with the larger issue of copyright violations and that is what we are after.

We respect Jacky Gosee as an artist and we wish him well but one has to take responsibility for their actions and he will be required to do so in this case.

In the end, AAFM's swift actions sent a clear message to not only Jacky but to all Ethiopian artists who have been violating the intellectual property rights of Eritrean musicians. Because of their efforts, Ethiopian artists will start to think twice before taking Eritrean songs without consent.

Knowing he would receive criticism for taking another Eritrean song without consent, Jacky went on the diplomatic charm offensive by announcing he wanted to do a concert in Asmara, and wore a T-shirt that read "Ethiopia-Eritrea One Love". But all this was done to soften the criticism he knew he would receive.

Related Reading: What's Motivating Ethiopian Artists to copy Eritrean songs?

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