A PART-time musician browsing YouTube found a song he wrote in 1993 had become a smash hit — in South Korea.
Shocked Martin Kennedy’s piece Minuet was used for Kim Chan’s 2003 mega K-pop record Bis Na Gan Sa Rang — or Another Love.
It even became the soundtrack to one of the country’s most popular TV shows, the drama Snowman, which was syndicated across the Far East.
Now retired maths teacher Martin, 68, is in a legal fight for £20,000 he is owed in royalties.
He told The Sun: “It’s a miracle that I heard this track.
“I was shuffling through songs and videos, and it took me right back.
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Whoever stole it all those years ago at least had the decency to stick my name down as the author and composer.
“Perhaps they thought that this would appease me in the unlikely event that I ever found out.”
Martin, who lives in Soho, central London, said he had received around £500 for use of the tune since 2016 via UK copyright collective PRS for Music.
But the Korea Music Copyright Association is suggesting it is not liable for pay-outs before then, when his tune with new Korean lyrics was at its most popular.
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Martin wrote Minuet when a budding musician performing in pubs and clubs, and included it on one of his two albums, which flopped.
Kim Chan used the melody as a solo singer after leaving a boyband.
Jiwon Jung, from the Korea Music Copyright Association, insisted: “Royalties eligible for retroactive distribution in accordance with applicable rules were calculated and paid to PRS in May 2025.”