Who is Briella? Did Shakira plagiarize her song?

Shakira’s BZRP Music Sessions #53 track is already the hottest debut in Youtube history, after racking up over 50 million views in the first 24 hours after its release on Wednesday. But parts of the melody are practically identical to a song which Venezuelan reggaeton artist Briella released last year.

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Only you

Briella’s Sólo tú (Bubbaloo) [Only you (Bubbaloo)] came out in June 2022 with an accompanying video but for obvious reasons, received nowhere near the kind of exposure or response that Shakira’s Music Sessions collaboration with Bizarrap has. Clocking in at just over three minutes, Sólo tú has 136,500 plays on Spotify and while information on the number of plays Music Sessions #53 isn’t available just yet, it’s probably 100 times that.

On Thursday, little over 24 hours after BZRP Music Sessions #53 dropped, Sólo tú (Bubbaloo) registered 900,000 views on Youtube. But since the similarity with Shakira’s track was noted, Briella’s video has skyrocketed and in just a few hours has been viewed 2.2 million times. Both videos have gone viral with Shakira’s currently at 63 million views.

Who is Briella?

It has certainly given Briella an unimaginable amount of exposure. Little is known about her, other than that her real name is María Gabriela Otaiza, she was born in Valencia, Carabobo (Venezuela) and that she is around 22 or 23 years old..

She is as surprised as anyone that her track is so similar to the song of the moment, the biggest Latino hit of 2023 by some distance. “My inbox is completely full, it’s collapsed,” Briella explained in a video posted on her official Instagram account, briellamusica. “I’ve been told that Shakira plagiarized my song Sólo Tú for the Bizarrap session. Let’s hear it right now. The song is very similar, but it’s nothing to do with me. I’m not looking for any problems. I love Shakira, I worship her, I have been a fan of hers all of my life and it’s an honour if she plagiarized my song… And to be honest, I’m in shock, I don’t know what to do!”

How similar are the songs? You can judge for yourself: