KATRA's Song 'Tietäjä' Is Not WITHIN TEMPTATION Copy

ESCToday.com reports: A neutral jury YLE put together to decide if the KATRA song "Tietäjä" — which qualified for the Finnish final in the Eurovision Song Contest — is a copy of WITHIN TEMPTATION's "Jillian" has come to the conclusion that it is not. The "Katragate" exploded over the weekend after the second Finnish semifinal where KATRA made it to the Euroviisut final with "Tietäjä". The song was a clear favorite by the televoters gaining 75% of the votes against her other song in the running, "Vaaratar". Both songs are written by Risto Asikainen and Ilkka Vainio. The jury that consisted of four music professionals, composers and conductors compared the songs on paper and decided they are not the same song.

Kalle Torniainen — one of the jury members — said, "A song must have the same harmony and melody through the whole chorus before we can speak of plagiarism. Here it is more a question of atmosphere and same music style. Otherwise the songs are completely different."

"The songs are all too different to call it plagiarism," says Veikko Samuli. "Only the style is similar. That may make people who can't read music think it is alike."

"This is a completely different melody," states Riku Niemi. "The music style and atmosphere create an illusion of being alike when they are only similar, and only in a little piece of the chorus. The rest of the melody is completely different," concludes Pertti Haverinen.

"I have listened to WITHIN TEMPTATION before," says Katra, "but I was more worried 'Tietäjä' might be compared to NIGHTWISH's 'Wishmaster', if anything. This 'Jillian' is something totally unexpected to me. But good music awakes this kind of passion and feelings."

To hear the choruses to the two songs played back-to-back, click here. A video clip of KATRA performing "Tietäjä" in its entirety can be found at this location.

Katra has been one of the most interesting singers in this year's Euroviisut even before this small controversy. Her rock-metal-opera leaves no one cold — you either love it or you hate it. Many of the people that witnessed her performance at the Tohlhoppi studios commented that she lost half her charm when seen on the small TV screen.

Katra also denies being a well-designed product. "This is me," she says. "I have designed my wardrobe myself. I have had this long hair for a long time, it's all mine. No extensions, only the color comes from a bottle. She has been studying music for the past 15 years and at the moment studies composing and piano in Tampere. She also reads and travels a lot. "I have just been to Egypt, seen the pyramids. I also feel very much at home in Greece. I think the ancient cultures are very close to my present persona," she concludes.