VietNamNet Bridge – Rihanna and Coldplay’s “Princess of China” song in “Mylo Xyloto” album, which was released on October 17, is similar to Vietnamese singer Tran Thu Ha’s “Ra Ngo Tung King” song (Chant At The Alley) in “Tran Tien” album in 2008.
An American forum on music, ATRL, has a topic named "Coldplay & Rihanna plagiarizing Vietnam music?” The forum had five pages of comments.

“In 2008, Hà Trần Production released album the first musician's album Trần Tiến. Beside Hà Trần, the album was also contributed by Tùng Dương, Hòa T. Trần and David Trần,” commented ATRL.

“This album also expressed the maturity of Ha Tran's voice, sweet, feeling and sophistical and showed a different master picture of Trần Tiến. In this album Hà Trần skillfully used her voice as an instrument, she sang as she talked, naturally and balance in emotion. Album Trần Tiến was arranged with the concept of colors, theme and style of Trần Tiến.”

Most comments say that Rihanna plagiarized Ha Tran’s music. “How could someone say they sound nothing in common? Kii. And Ha Tran is like Bjork of Vietnam. So don't,” a member named Linnen Armani wrote.

Princess of China and Ra Ngo Tung Kinh have similar lyrics and music. The chorus of Ra Ngo Tung Kinh: “Em chưa biết đọc em nằm nghiêng/ Em vẫn nằm nghiêng đón mặt trời xanh em đợi anh… Mặt trời xanh hai đứa chúng mình/ Một ổ rơm ấm tu thiền mật tông/ Mặt trời xanh hai đứa chúng mình/ Một ổ rơm ấm tụng kinh thánh hiền” is similar to “Once Upon A Time We Fell Apart/ You Hold Me In Your Hand… You Could Have Been The Princess, I'd Be A King/ Could Have Had A Castle And Wore A Ring” of Princess of China.

Musician Thanh Phuong, one of producers of “Tran Tien” album, said he started in surprise of the similarity of the two songs, especially the intro.
He said perhaps Rihanna and Coldplay listened to Asian music, including “Tran Tien” album before writing Princess of China. He confirmed that the intro of Ra Ngo Tung Kinh is very special, so it is unacceptable if it is a coincidence between Princess of China and Ra Ngo Tung Kinh. However, he said it is very difficult to define that Rihanna and Coldplay plagiarized Ha Tran’s music.

Phuong said he would contact Ha Tran, who now lives in the US, to consider the case.

“After listening to Princess of China, I felt lucky. It is lucky because my album was released three years ago, otherwise I would be criticized to plagiarize Rihanna’s music,” Phuong said.
Senior songwriter Tran Tien, the author of Ra Ngo Tung Kinh, also said that the two songs have similar intro.

Coldplay was sued for plagiarizing music in 2008 and 2009.

Some Vietnamese songs were plagiarized by Cambodian singers, including Duy Manh’s Kiep Do Den, Nguyen Van Chung’s Vang Trang Khoc and Khanh Trung’s Mua Bang Gia.

VNE