The Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group has ruled that Dami Im’s Sound of silence – Australia’s entry for the 2016 competition – does not break any rules on product placement.

The powerful ballad, which has long been tipped for success by Europe’s bookmakers, features the lyric ‘trying to feel your love through face time’, prompting listeners to wonder if the lyric is a reference to Apple’s video-telephony product FaceTime.  Eurovision Song Contest rules preclude any messages ‘promoting any political cause, company, brand, products or services’.

The Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group – the arbiters of such disputes – has however ruled that Dami’s entry does not break any rules:

The lyrics of the Australian song (Sound of Silence) are presented as two separate words – face time – and not FaceTime which is an Apple trademark.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary refers to “face time” as “time spent meeting with someone” so in this case the lyrics have been cleared.

Belarus’s TEO, who represented his country at the Eurovision Song Contest of 2014, was forced to change some lyrics from his entry Cheesecake from ‘Google maps’ to ‘all the maps’.  Another famous recent example is San Marino’s Valentina Monetta, whose 2012 entry titled Facebook uh, oh, oh was changed to The social network song to comply with Contest regulations.

Dami Im will perform Sound of silence in the first half of the second semi-final of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on Thursday 12 May.  Held at the Globen Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, on 10, 12 and 14 May, 2016 marks Australia’s second participation at the Contest, following Guy Sebastian’s Top 10 entry Tonight again in 2015.

Watch the official video for Sound of silence below:

Stay tuned to esctoday.com for all the latest news on Dami Im and the Eurovision Song Contest 2016!