Children around the world already know the tune to Beijing’s Winter Olympics song

Did the organizers of Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympics really rip off “Let It Go”? Could they be so cruel?

Plenty of internet users think so.

A few days after Beijing was awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics  — itself a highly controversial decision given the lack of, ahem, snow in and around the Chinese capital in the month of February when the event will be held — organizers have been accused of plagiarizing the theme song from Disney’s insanely popular animated film "Frozen."

“The Ice and Snow Dance,” one of 10 official anthems for Beijing’s winter sports extravaganza, sounds suspiciously similar to “Let It Go,” according to many music-loving internet users, who have posted hundreds of comments under a YouTube video of the song and are letting their feelings go on social media. 

"Even China's Olympics song is a cheap knock-off of something American," a user who went by Movie Munchies wrote in the YouTube comments. 

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And this from Tanith Diggory: "I just played this while my six year old was in the room and she ran over shouting 'Frozen!!!' This is Frozen … errrr … is this Frozen? I don't understand it but it's Frozen!"

"Does anyone else feel like shouting let it go halfway thru the song?" asked Andy Lee. 

According to The Telegraph, web users who have analyzed both songs claim the "introductions are similar along with the tempos and the fact that the main instrument in both pieces is a piano."

We'll let you be the judge.

Here's the Disney original:

And now, Beijing 2022's "The Ice and Snow Dance":

Counterfeiting, plagiarism and piracy are very common in China, where trademark and copyright laws are often violated and offenders rarely punished. The issue has long been a thorn in the side of China’s relations with its trading partners, particularly the United States.

But while many Chinese and foreign shoppers are happy to buy fake golf clubs, Hollywood DVDs, designer handbags and trench coats, plagiarizing a song from "Frozen" appears to be going too far. 

Perhaps they, like many parents around the world, believe one version of the song is already too many.

Neither Disney nor Beijing Olympic organizers have commented on the embarrassing accusation so far, but it wouldn’t be the first time that a tune for a major international event in China had been, err, heavily inspired by an existing song.

In 2010, a promotional song for Shanghai Expo was pulled after internet users noted the remarkable similarities with a 1997 ballad by Japanese singer-songwriter Mayo Okamoto.

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Nor are allegations of plagiarism new to the Olympics.

Shortly after Tokyo’s Olympic organizers unveiled the official logo — which was quickly dismissed as uninspiring — there were suggestions that the design bore a striking resemblance to the logo used by the Belgian Theatre de Liege.

And the organizers of the London Olympics were embroiled in a legal dispute over the design of the flaming flower cauldron, which was the spectacular centerpiece of the opening ceremony in 2012, because it looked identical to a proposal submitted by an American design firm that was later discarded. Or so they thought. 

But even if it turns out that Chinese composer Zhao Zhao, who wrote the music for “The Ice and Snow Dance,” did copy “Let It Go,” is it really his fault?

In the past 18 months it has been almost impossible to avoid hearing the "Frozen" hit, which has been played over and over again in households, on the radio and in stores around the world. 

Perhaps Zhao, like so many people, just couldn’t get the tune out of his head.