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Probe into possible Eurovision plagiarism

Published: 18 Feb 13 14:39 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20130218-48037.html

Germany's entry for this year's Eurovision Song Contest is being investigated after allegations that it copied elements of last year's winner, a television station reported on Monday.

State broadcaster NDR said it had "commissioned a musical audit" to examine claims that the song Glorious by German band Cascada, chosen Thursday to represent Germany, was a rip-off of Euphoria by Swedish artist Loreen.

NDR spokeswoman Iris Bents said the station would publish the results of the study when they were available but played down the allegations.

"Every year there are attempts to create scandals around the Eurovision Song Contest and the participants," she said.

She said the catchy techno-pop song Euphoria, which smashed the competition in 2012 with a massive 372 points, had also been accused of being a copy of work by French DJ David Guetta and Barbadian pop star Rihanna.

The producers of Glorious have rejected all allegations, Bents said. Cascada's lead singer Natalie Horler, who was born in Germany to British parents said "if you like, we can superimpose one song on the other. They are two different songs."

But according to a phonetics expert quoted in the Bild am Sonntag weekly, the two songs are "absolutely identical" at the beginning.

"The chorus uses the same accentuation, the ending peaks with the same combinations. The singers even use the same breathing methods," said the expert, Tina John.

The Eurovision Song Contest, an annual pop music extravaganza broadcast across Europe but also in dozens of countries around the world, will take place this year in the southern Swedish city of Malmö on May 18th.

Every year hopefuls from 26 countries compete in the final, hoping to become the new ABBA and avoid the dreaded fate of 'nul points' - picking up no points from the jury.

Plagiarism has been in the news in Germany in recent weeks following the resignation of Annette Schavan as education minister after being stripped of her doctorate title for allegedly copying parts of her thesis 33 years ago.

AFP/mb

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

16:58 February 18, 2013 by blackboot11
I recently saw the video of this entry for Eurovision ( after trying to find one that wasn't blocked by GEMA..LOL!) and it is just pitiful... thats all you can come up with? This is a joke right?
18:21 February 18, 2013 by twisted
Who Cares?
06:55 February 19, 2013 by Aelfgifu1
You mean all bad pop music isn't supposed to sound alike??
07:05 February 19, 2013 by CorneliusPigg
They've got issues with plagiarism in Germany. They've recalled 4 or 5 doctorates of prominent political figures in recent years, for reasons of plagiarism.
12:13 February 22, 2013 by arbeitsbiene3
Two different songs maybe? But, the first 60 seconds of Glorious is similar to Euphoria. Interested to know what the musical audit experts have to say?
16:34 February 22, 2013 by MaKo
I kinda feel sorry for the music experts who will be made to listen to this song. This act could just as well be a Chris Kattan creation from late-90s Saturday Night Live - so the plagiarism investigators may want to inspect that angle, too.
18:38 February 22, 2013 by almorr
Well they say that all modern songs sound the same now a days, so a situation like this was bound to happen.
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