PBS, the Maltese national broadcaster, is reportedly looking into allegations for a rule breach regarding one of the bidding songs for the MESC 2018 entries.
Maltese national broadcaster, PBS, is currently scrutinising all of the competing entries for the country’s upcoming national final, Malta Eurovision Song Contest (MESC), as to look into the possibility of a song breaching the competition rules.
The claim has been made since Aidan Cassar’s entry is reported to have used a publicly available production sample track that is available online for purchase.
Listen to Aidan Cassar’s entry Dai laga below!
Compare this with the sample production track.
The sample track may remind you of a Justin Bieber-Major Lazer type of song. The song is a sample production track made by LTTB named Come alive and is available for public use.
The track has reported been used in other releases from artists such are Odeosa and JRoa.
Breach of Eurovision rules?
This potentially goes against Eurovision rules that clearly state:
The compositions (lyrics and music) must not have been commercially released before 1 September 2017.
However, the original production was first released on YouTube on 14 August 2016 and uploaded to BeatStars on 18 September 2016.
Despite this, there is a possible way for the song to be allowed in the contest.
In particular, the ESC Executive Supervisor shall assess whether such disclosure prior to the Release Date is likely to give to the composition an advantage in the Event vis-à-vis the other compositions.
The ESC Executive Supervisor shall authorise or deny participation of a composition which may have been available to the public as described above, subject to the prior approval of the Reference Group.
A final decision is expected to be made in due course.