Original singer for “Return to Innocence”
Listen to the song from the following video.
Recognise it? Yep, it’s from Enigma’s Return to Innocence. I didn’t know this story before but apparently Enigma used the old man’s voice without permission and after making millions with it, they didn’t even compensate him. Even worse, they didn’t even recognize him as the performer for the song. His name is Di Fang, an elder from a tribe in Taiwan. The song is actually an elders’ drinking song.
When approached by them, Enigma’s production company challenged them to bring them to court, hoping that the millions of money needed to bring the case would deter them. However with the support of the Taiwanese people they did in 1997 and justice prevailed 2 years later when the lawsuit was resolved out of court in Difang’s favor. In the settlement, Enigma’s recording company agreed to compensate Difang financially.
DiFang passed away in 2002 at the age of 82.
Actually, at first I thought it was sung by a Native American and I usually have that image in my head whenever I hear it. Well I think from now on, I can correct this mistake, and give due recognition to the late Di Fang though it’s only in my head.
March 14th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I always thought the singer was a huge native Indian from USA…
Come to think of it.. they are almost like my dad’s tribe lah the Rungus…
Good one MrBadak. Now we know the truth.
March 14th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
[…] Adakah kita berasal daripada keturunan Taiwan? Melodi lagu mereka ini sangatlah mirip kepada lagu yang diwarisi turun temurun oleh nenek moyang kita. Anyway, untuk cerita sebenar daripada video ini, pergi baca MRBadak punya post. […]
March 14th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
This is so interesting! That means it’s much closer to home than thought. That melody is so beautiful and has a primal quality to it. Not knowing the exact meaning of the lyrics gives it an extra dimension - mystery.
NO wonder it reached the upper reaches of the world’s most important singles charts: the US Hot 100, and the UK Top 40.
That means only one thing: Difang Duana’s family would never need to work again, of course on the condition that they don’t squander their windfall away.
The only question now is: what does the lyrics actually mean? Since it’s a drinking song, does the meaning go along the lyrics to Tubthumping (that 1998 World Cup song): “I’ll get knocked out, but I’ll get up again, and you’re gonna have to drink me down”, or even John Gaisah’s classic “minum punya minum, ujung-ujung tidak mau pulang”?!
April 28th, 2008 at 5:46 am
Difang Duana’s are from a tribe call Amis, in taiwan. they are farmers by trade and they sing through work. what you hear are songs passed down for almost 30 generations. and from what i heard they didn’t get that much money out of the lawsuit, and only used the money to send the children in Amis tribe to school.