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Beijing 2022 anthem sounds rather similar to 'Let It Go' from 'Frozen'

Beijing has won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, even though it's a city not known for its winter chill. Even so, Beijing organizers have created a wonderland of multimedia productions designed to put everyone in mind of snow and ice ... in one case, by evoking the most famous depiction of cold in popular culture since Hoth.

"The Snow and Ice Dance," a song off a new collection of Beijing anthems, begins slowly, with a single voice over a gentle piano theme before building to a crescendo. If you've read the headline, you know where we're going with this one, but play this for a friend and see if this song reminds them of anything:

Sound familiar? If you're not singing along, any nearby kids sure are. The Chinese song is awfully close to "Let it Go," the omnipresent anthem from "Frozen" that's the bane of karaoke and carpools everywhere:

As the relentless flow of bootlegged DVDs from China has shown, a little copyright violation never bothered Beijing anyway. Per Fortune, there's even a name for it: shanzhai, pirating well-known brands for cheap and easy resale. While musical plagiarism is tougher to prove than piracy, there's still the telling element of know-it-when-you-hear it.

So, your thoughts. Does the Chinese song rip off "Frozen," or is it just a case of two very similar songs with identical themes? Your call.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.

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