The Scoop

Skandal! SVT kicks out Anna Book

We often see accusations of plagiarism flying around in the Eurovision world. Songs like Glorious and even Only Teardrops have all been subject of accusations often based on nothing but similarity. Today in Sweden however, Anna Book’s entry Himmel För Två in Melodifestivalen 2016, it appeared that said entry is in fact identical to an entry in Moldova’s 2014 national final.
During a special press conference held by SVT tonight, Christer Björkman spoke about the case and has admitted that they have now also found out that Anna Book and Felicia Dunaf were, in fact, handed the same song. The songwriters for both songs are the same – recycling would be a way of putting it.
SVT have said that Himmel För Två has been removed from the competition that is Melodifestivalen 2016. They have however offered Anna Book to perform her entry during the show on Saturday, but up until now, SVT have not received a reply from her yet. As you can understand, Anna is heartbroken.
It is shocking that the songwriters of this song, Sven-Inge Sjöberg, Lennart Wastesson, Larry Forsberg and Camilla Läckberg, have officially pulled a stunt with Anna Book here and that is not something to admire. Anna Book probably did not know what mess her songwriters were getting her into.
You may wonder why Björkman and his SVT team were not able to spot the identical sound of the two songs sooner than today. Björkman replied by saying that, as they receive over 2000 songs each year, it is incredibly hard, if not impossible, to filter them.
All in all, it’s a sad day for Anna. Below you can see the two songs and you’ll probably see the same as every one of us: These two are identical.

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