Following the bout of rumours, accusations and talk of disqualification of two songs competing to become the United Kingdom's entry for the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, Dominic Lobley has issued a statement to esctoday.com to reassure fans that all six entries meet EBU criteria. You can read the statement exclusively below:
In response to your queries about Antony Costa and Daz Sampon's entries to Making your mind up. Antony's song, Beautiful thing, had previously been recorded by Michelle Lawson who shares the same manager (and songwriter) as Antony, John McCloughin. However, the song was never commercially released, and hasn't been available legally on the internet.
Daz Sampon originally recorded Teenage life under the pseudonym Space Cats, again this track wasn't commercially released – the track available on the internet is a white label promo and we are satisfied it does not break EBU Eurovision regulations.
The copyright owners of the tracks have been informed and are seeking legal advice on potential copyright infringements.
We are satisfied that all six of our entries for Making your mind up 2006 fall within the EBU Eurovision rules regarding performance and commercial release (Section Five, Subsection 2).
Once again we thank the loyal UK fanbase and wider Eurovision community for their diligence in this matter.
This statement is clear in the sense that the BBC were aware that both songs had been previously recorded and met with the relevant criteria to be put forward as entrants in the 3rd annual Making your mind up on Saturday 4th March.
We also understand that the owners of the copyright to the songs have had no knowledge of any sales, and have not benefitted financially or otherwise from any sale. They are seeking legal advice on the situation.
