Slovene songwriter perplexed but honoured to find his tune on U2 album

Pop group U2 is currently touring Europe in support of their new album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." But in Slovenia, U2 entered the headlines for an entirely different reason.

That's the melody of "Okupatora" a song written ten years ago by the beloved Slovenian singer, songwriter and poet Zoran Predin. It appeared on his 1992 album Gate na Glavo (literally "Underwear on the Head") - the second of Mr. Predin's dozen solo albums. He was previously the front man of the popular Yugoslav rock group Lacni Franz (Hungry Franz).

The song Okupatora returned to the spotlight recently, when a Slovenian fan noticed that the same melody appeared on a track of the new U2 album. Here's a clip of U2's new song "City of Blinding Lights":

The Ljubljana-based newspaper Dnevnik broke the story, and although cynics expected a possible lawsuit to follow, Mr. Predin showed himself to be more flattered than outraged. He told the paper that it was a "great compliment" to have written the same melody as U2-frontman Bono.

We called Mr. Predin to learn more, and discovered that he was having breakfast in Dublin - where (coincidentally enough) he was about to attend a U2 concert. He described himself as a big fan of the Irish rock band. When we asked him about the identical melodies, he had this to say:

"It's not a big deal, it happens all the time. I'm just so happy that it happened with a man and band I'm a fan of. I just want to say that it is a big thing for me to know that there was a moment that we felt the same melody and this is something I'm very proud of."

With Mr. Predin's enormous creative output - he has written music scores for 6 theater pieces, 5 films, 4 TV series and has released new albums almost every year since 1980 - it may only be a matter of time before another famous band re-discovers a melody Predin has already written.