It was a 90s anthem that made millions from a 'stolen' sweet lullaby

It was a song used by Sony, Porsche and SBS.

But the Solomon Islander who sang it barely saw a cent. 

Today, a battle for recognition – and royalties – has begun.

Elen Kasi has seen a lot in her 75 years. But these days, her eyes are starting to fail her.

Age is catching up and her memory's a little patchy. But on this fact her mind is crystal clear. 

"After she sung, they paid her $2," she said. 

"Whenever I hear her song, I have a sense of pride that it's her. But to this date, I just want to be compensated on behalf of my mum."

A Sweet Lullaby

Elen's mother is Afunakwa. 

For most people that means nothing. 

Even in her home country, Solomon Islands, she's barely known. 

Afunakwa died in 1987 and there are no photos of her.

But her voice has been heard by millions around the world. 

Afunakwa sang a lullaby called Rorogwela, recorded in 1969 in the Solomon Islands region of Baegu and used in massive 1990s hit song Sweet Lullaby, by French group Deep Forest. 

But crucially, the man who recorded Afunakwa – the man who gave her $2 – says he never gave Deep Forest permission to use the lullaby. 

For decades Afunakwa was uncredited and the people of Baegu in Solomon Islands never mentioned. 

The lullaby was instead attributed to African tribes, with the original music video showing an African woman and her son.  

The people of Baegu say it's simple. 

They say the song was stolen.

And today, they want answers.

Number one in Australia 

At the time, it was a type of music that had not been heard. 

The French duo behind Deep Forest, Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez, often referred to it as "ethnic electronica" – mixing world music melodies or chants with electronic dance music.  

In Australia, Deep Forest's popularity went to another level. 

Sweet Lullaby was the lead single that helped propel Deep Forest's 1992 album to number one in Australia, the only country where that happened.  

The album went on sell an estimated 3.5 million copies worldwide.

Sweet Lullaby was a marketer's dream, with brands including Sony, Coca-Cola and Porsche using it to promote their products.

The song made millions through CD sales and licensing and was used in films and viral videos. 

Sweet Lullaby remains popular today, with more than 50 million streams. Deep Forest is still touring and still playing the song.  

In the music industry, samples such as Afunakwa's have to be cleared for use, with the original artist generally receiving royalties or a set payment.  

Afunakwa and her family were never asked. 

They received nothing.        

"These people have stolen what belongs to us. They mixed it into something else [and] it's completely lost its meaning," Afunakwa's grandson John Jack said.

A lullaby for an orphan  

Baegu, in the Malaita province of Solomon Islands, is incredibly isolated. 

There's no mobile phone reception and no internet.

There are no roads in the area the ABC visited, and the only way in is by boat. 

But the people here tend to like the isolation.

The kids play soccer and run around.  

The adults garden, fish and tell stories.

And they sing – a cultural practice that's been passed on for centuries.

"Lullabies are very important to us," 70-year-old Theresa Tafili says. 

"My mum knew how to sing and she passed it on to me, and now my daughters know.

"When there's a cultural celebration or a girl gets married, you'll hear a song composed." 

Theresa is considered the custodian of Baegu's lullabies, what they call roiroas.

She says Rorogwela, the lullaby used by Deep Forest, has significant cultural meaning.

"It's a song for an orphan," she says.

"In the song, the eldest son is looking after his younger sibling. 

"The parents passed away. There was no-one who could help them to look after the child."

] 

Theresa says she remembers the day a "white man" came to Baegu almost 60 years ago to record her relative, Afunakwa, sing it. 

That man was Swiss ethnomusicologist Hugo Zemp. 

Zemp's recording, intended as a field recording for cultural purposes, was included on a UNESCO collection (now available for streaming) found by Deep Forest in a Paris record store and used in Sweet Lullaby.  

]

And this is where the story gets even murkier.

'Pay back your profits'

Zemp died in January at 88. 

But he maintained until his death that he never gave Deep Forrest permission to use the recording of Afunakwa used in Sweet Lullaby.  

In a 1996 letter to Deep Forest, he wrote: 

"You usurped my name in declaring that your enterprise had my support," he said. 

"The piece which you entitled 'Sweet Lullaby' … you improperly credited as your composition, stealing the tune which belongs to the Baegu people of Malaita.

"[And] stealing the voice of the singer, Afunakwa."

Deep Forest, today, contests this version of events. 

In a statement to the ABC, the group's remaining member, Eric Mouquet, said he provided a list of samples and recordings used in the first Deep Forest album, including Sweet Lullaby, to the record's producers. 

He said it was wrong to assume that "everything was decided by the musicians who created the final arrangement".  

Mouquet told the ABC French producer Dan Lacksman, the only one of three producers still alive, was "responsible for obtaining the permissions necessary".

In a statement to the ABC, Lacksman said he was only responsible for providing "the recording studio".  

He said "permissions and administrative tasks" were the responsibility of now-defunct record label Celine Music, now owned by Sony Music in France. 

Sony did not respond to the ABC's request for comment. 

For Zemp, the resolution was simple: 

"It is time to put your good words into action and pay back part of your profits to the real owners of this music," he wrote.

Now, 34 years after Sweet Lullaby's release, an unlikely source is doing just that. 

Recouping royalties

Baegu man Celsus Talifilu describes it as a "family thing". 

His father was village chief in Baegu when the recording of Afunakwa was made by Zemp. 

"It is very close to my heart," he said.   

Talifilu, now special advisor to the Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale, heard the story of Afunakwa many times growing up. 

He's made it a personal mission to right what he calls a terrible wrong. 

"As a Baegu man, I'm very honoured and proud of something [like this lullaby] comes from my place,"

he said.

“But there should have been that respect given to where the song came from." 

At one point, more than a decade ago, he said he spoke to lawyers in the US about pursuing a legal fight against Deep Forest.

But the cost was too great, he said, with most lawyers frightened off by the threat of facing corporate giant Sony, which owns the rights to Deep Forest's former label.

So when he received a call out of the blue from an Australian chasing information about Afunakwa, his ears pricked up.

That man was Sydney-based electronic music producer Matt Singmin. 

In 2017, Singmin, whose focus is "meditative electronic music" was a DJ at Sydney yoga events. 

He was looking into classic songs of the early 1990s and wanted to remix Sweet Lullaby, so he contacted Deep Forest for permission. 

"It was difficult to get them to agree to do a licence," he said. 

"So I started looking into the history of the song and discovered there's a somewhat murky history to it.

"I started thinking, 'If I'm going to try and release this track ethically, I may need to take a different approach.'"

Singmin decided to travel to Baegu in 2018 to ask for permission to remix the song himself and documented the experience in a documentary recently released on YouTube.

He wanted to do more.   

"It doesn't feel fair that the people from where the song came, and the original singer and her family, never received anything," he said. 

In conjunction with Celsus and Afunakwa's grandsons, Singmin has launched the Afunakwa Foundation, a fund to try and recoup some of the royalties the people of Baegu never received. 

“The hope is that some of the people that may have benefited from the lullaby might consider that the right thing to do would be to make a donation," he said.    

'Very regrettable', says Deep Forest founder 

Deep Forest is in the middle of a European tour, still playing to small but dedicated audiences who have followed the group for more than three decades.  

After originally agreeing to an interview, Mouquet's booking agent said he had "no time left" due to the tour and preferred to write his answers. 

In an eight-page statement to the ABC he said it was "very regrettable" Afunakwa was not credited and he "completely understood" why the community might feel "hurt, disappointed or angry". 

Deep Forest has since amended its YouTube version of Sweet Lullaby to mention her and Hugo Zemp.

"I don't want this story to become a confrontation between people who share a love for the same music," Mouquet said. 

"I am personally open to collaborating with Afunakwa's family and discussing how I can make a positive contribution."

He said audiences still "connected deeply" with the song when he performed it today.

"I think that says something extraordinary about the universal beauty of the original melody and Afunakwa's voice," he said.  

As they wait for the next chapter of this story, it's one fact the people Baegu can agree on.

You can watch the video version of this story on 7:30 tonight or on The Pacific on ABC iview.