In a recent interview with Laureline Tilkin of Tuonela Magazine, Peter Tägtgren from the Swedish industrial metal band PAIN was asked about recent plagiarism accusations against Croatia’s 2024 entry, BABY LASAGNA. Their song for this year’s competition, “Rim Tim Tagi Dim,” is alleged to be very similar to PAIN‘s 2021 release, “Party In My Head.”
Peter said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “I didn’t even hear it in the beginning, and [comments about the supposed similarities between the two songs] started popping up everywhere. People were, like, ‘Oh, I think Croatia stole your song,’ blah, blah, blah. And I was, like, ‘What? I don’t hear it.’ I just hear ‘woo hoo hoo’ [in the chorus], but you hear ‘woo hoo hoo ‘ in ‘I Love It Loud’ with KISS since ’81 or whatever.
“So, for me, I was fine with that. And then, actually, our bass player explained, ‘Well, he has the same kind of figure of singing.’ Whatever. I don’t care. I thought it was fun. And I think it’s good that they put in a little bit metal in this Eurovision thing, like they did with the LORDI 15 years ago. When you get it right, it gets popular. So people want more metal.”
When the interviewer mentioned that it must feel gratifying when other musicians are inspired by his work, Peter responded: “I mean, I have no problem, like I said. I’m honored, even though it doesn’t say my name on it. But you can maybe feel that he heard ‘Party In My Head’ before. So I’m totally fine with that.”
BABY LASAGNA was created by 28-year-old singer-songwriter Marko Purišić from Umag, Croatia. Marko adopted the pseudonym BABY LASAGNA when he launched his solo career in 2023.
In some interviews, Marko has acknowledged drawing inspiration from RAMMSTEIN, whose lead singer Till Lindemann has collaborated with Tägtgren on two full-length albums in the past.
“RAMMSTEIN all the way!” Marko said. “When I first started the first riff [for ‘Rim Tim Tagi Dim’], I wanted it to sound like a RAMMSTEIN riff.”
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