In the latest developments on Hungary's choice of Eurovision Song Contest entry, esctoday.com has received confirmation that Mark Zentai has withdrawn his entry It's time to party. MTV has confirmed to esctoday.com that the jury is convening once again to select an alternative entry after it became clear late last night that the song had been used in Sweden as a song by the Big Brother reality show contestants. Mark Zenai will therefore not be representing hungary at the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.
Yesterday, Hungarian national broadcaster announced that a jury had selected Mark Zentai as their Eurovision Song Contest entrant with the song It's time to party. The song was to be formally unveiled on February 11th, however it was already available on the internet. It was soon discovered that the song had been used in Sweden and recorded by the Big Brother housemates in the Swedish version of the show. Although the lyrics had been changed, it was clear that the song had been available publicly well in advance of the 1st October 2008 deadline.
This morning, MTV confirmed to esctoday.com that Zentai had withdrawn the song and the jury would convene again to select an alternative entry as the song was in breach of EBU rules for participating at the Eurovision Song Contest.
MTV will announce the replacement entry to represent Hungary at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday 8th February. A statement from Zentai's management team is forthcoming and will be published on esctoday.com in the next few minutes.
Stay tuned to esctoday.com for all the latest news regarding Hungary's 2009 Eurovision Song Contest entry.
You can see the two songs below:
(Mark Zentai – It's time to party)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8OYK8m97hY
(Swedish Big Brother: We became friends)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkWcVYru8RY
UPDATE
esctoday.com has received the following statement from Warner Music Hungary (14:05 CET):
"Neither Mark’s management nor the record company was aware that the song has been previously released in 2006 as part of the Swedish Big Brother tv show. If we would have obtained knowledge of this fact earlier, we couldn’t have submitted this song for the Hungarian pre-selection according to the Rules of the Eurovision Song Contest saying that 'the entries must not have been commercially released and/or publicly performed before 1 October 2008'.
We would like to make clear that Figge Boström is the composer of both the original Swedish version and Mark’s version which means that plagiarism is out of question. The director of the record company, Mr. István Joós investigated the case together with the artist and his management and together they came to the decision to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest.”
