Disqualification threat to UK song

by Richard West-Soley 110 views

Allegations are being made that the song due to be sung by Antony Costa in the UK final Making your mind up is facing disqualification, after it was claimed that the song was available for the public to download before the cut-off date of October 2005.

It has emerged that the song Beautiful thing was recorded as a demo track in 2004, but was never officially made available or released. The BBC were apparently aware of this, but had no cause to worry since it was believed that the song had not been released, and therefore had not contravened the contest rules.

However, the track is currently available for download on the page of the original artist, Michelle Lawson, at the site 247dna, for a fee. Details on the site suggest that the song was available online last July; confirmation of this is expected soon. Antony's song only faces trouble if it was available to the public before the agreed date of October.

Allegations of disqualification are premature, until the date of publication is confirmed; if the song was available only after the cut-off date, Antony will be free to sing it in the UK final. There is still no official word from the BBC, but an official comment is expected by tomorrow morning.

Richard West-Soley

Senior Editor

Richard's ESC history began way back in 1992, when he discovered the contest could fuel his passion for music and languages. Since then, it's been there at every corner for him in some way or another. He joined the esctoday.com team back in 2006, and quickly developed a love for writing about the contest. In his other life, he heads the development team at the learning resources company Linguascope, and writes about all aspects of language learning on the site Polyglossic.com.