Euro Song entrants consider legal action

Songwriters are considering legal action against RTE over their handling of the 2006 Euro Song Contest.
That’s according to the Secretary of the Music Publishers Association of Ireland, Johnny Lappin, who is one of the many industry people unhappy with the selection process, which resulted in Brian Kennedy getting to sing one of his own songs at the Eurovision finals.
“I believe the station, and others involved in this fiasco, have a number of serious questions to answer,” Lappin charges, “and these need answering sooner rather than later, as there are a number of Irish publishers and songwriters contemplating taking legal action on the grounds of what they perceive as the fraudulent aspects of this year’s event.
“RTE’s Euro Song entry procedure was a disgraceful insult to the numerous songwriters who put considerable time, effort and money into their entries only to have them treated so dismissively by RTE.”
According to Lappin, one of Ireland’s most experienced music publishers, RTE had said that the songs would be judged by a panel comprising former Eurovision winners Brendan Graham and Shay Healy, and Paul Brady – who is perhaps Ireland’s most successful individual songwriter.
However, it later emerged that a screening process had taken place, with the effect that the three wise men would hear only a small fraction of the songs that had been submitted.To add further fuel to the fire, the acclaimed songwriter Thom Moore – whose compositions have been recorded by many of Ireland’s leading artists – has also entered the fray with a damning critique of RTE’s treatment of the entrants.
“I am one of the people who felt encouraged by the participation of Shay, Brendan, Paul, et al, enough to write a new song and submit it,” Moore states. “Not only did I not ever receive confirmation of the fact that I had delivered it (by hand, one day before the first deadline), but none of my friends who submitted entries did either.”
In an open letter to RTE, Johnny Lappin poses a number of what he feels are crucial questions:
• “The original closing date was extended from December 17 to allow for additional entries because of the alleged ‘lack of quality’ of the entries. Who made the decision, what were their qualifications to make such an assumption and on what grounds was it made?
• “It was only when I had a telephone conversation with Julian Vignoles of RTE several days after the closing date that he confirmed that the ‘initial’ selection procedure would be carried out by himself and other RTE personnel. To my knowledge, this was the first we’d heard of this masterstroke. Mr. Vignoles now needs to explain to us how this initial selection panel, which he has since admitted comprised himself and two others, listened to over 1,000 entries and gave them sufficient time to make fair judgements on them all. In my own experience of carrying out such work, one usually needs to devote an average of 10 minutes per song, including the time it takes to load the CD player, listen to it, reflect on it and take notes. So listening to over 1,000 songs even once would take at least 170 hours, while, we presume, these same gentlemen were also carrying out their daily responsibilities for RTE!
• “In late January 2006 (before the final four songs were announced), I discovered that some Irish Music Publishers had been approached by RTE asking them to submit songs by client songwriters. This was done in a manner that can only be described as underhand, prejudicial and a flagrant breach of the rules. It then became rumoured that RTE were spending their time and money recording a Jimmy McCarthy song. When the final four songs were announced, lo and behold, the list included a song by Jimmy McCarthy called ‘The Greatest Song of All’. So on what authority did RTE decide to over-ride their own rules?
• “I have much respect for Brian Kennedy as a singer and for his track record, but did it never occur to him that maybe having his own song as one of the final three might look a little odd? I am also disappointed that in media interviews about the entire fiasco he has been totally dismissive of the issues raised. As a songwriter himself, does Brian Kennedy feel no responsibility at all for the part he played in RTE’s dismissive treatment of the 1,000 Irish songwriters, who put time and energy and money into trying to give him the best Eurovision entry possible?
• “Before the public were allowed to vote, Linda Martin, Marty Whelan and Louis Walsh were interviewed and enthusiastically tipped Brian Kennedy’s song. Do RTE not consider that this was also likely to be prejudicial to the public vote, with viewers at home likely to be influenced by three seasoned heavyweights and a Leaderboard all just happening to plump for the song written by the singer of the entries?”
In an interview conducted exclusively for hotpress, Sharon Brady, RTE’s senior press and publicity officer, responds to Lappin’s criticisms.
“It had never been envisioned that the judging panel chaired by Brendan Graham would listen to all of the entries,” Brady proffers. “What we had said was that they would select the final four. We never claimed they would listen to everything.”
She does, however, express regret that details of the screening process had not been pre-publicised.
“In hindsight, we should have maybe made this more clear,” she concedes. “But every single song was listened to. People in RTE were working on this since before Christmas, and over the Christmas holidays anything that was vaguely suitable was put through.”
Concerning the suggestion that Jimmy McCarthy may have been approached by RTE, Brady states simply “nobody was approached.”
Addressing the allegation that RTE encouraged the public to vote for Brian Kennedy’s song on the night, she comments: “As with any telly-voting we had an independent observer – Gerrard Moran of Price Waterhouse Cooper – and he was happy with everything.”
In conclusion, the RTE spokeswoman says: “We were really delighted with the response and the amount of entries that came in, so we’d like to thank everyone for that and assure them that we will be looking at how we can improve this process of getting the best representation for Ireland in the Eurovision.