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'There is no plagiarism'
We never heard of Pandora
Earlier today, following a report in Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, partner website escsweden.com wrote that:
Swedish singer Pandora is angry and seems to be on the move. She´s furious over United Kingdom´s Eurovision entry Flying the flag (for you) that according to Pandora is pure plagiarism. "It´s more than similar to my song No regrets that I released on a album back in 1999, especially the refrain in Flying the flag (for you)". Pandora points out the British band has stolen from her eight year old song. Tabloid Aftonbladet wrote on Wednesday that Pandora has been in contact with lawyers at the Swedish Muscisian Organisation to take legal acctions against Scooch. "I want Scooch entry to be disqualified", Pandora says to Aftonbladet.
The BBC has issued a statement confirming that “The Scooch song is an original song written by Russ Spencer, Morten Schjolin, Andrew Hill and Paul Tarry. Those writers were never aware of Pandora’s songs so she can be assured there has been no duplication of her work”. Whilst the first line of the refrain appears similar, there are few other similarities, no duplication of lyrics and a completely different backing track. It is highly unlikely that this claim would be upheld should she take the matter to court or the EBU.
Morten Schjolin told esctoday.com's partner website, esconnet.dk: “I had never heard her song before. I believe it’s not released in England. Some easily can say it seems alike, but I’m not afraid for this case”.
Pandora (born Anneli Magnusson) has tried and failed to reach the Eurovision Song Contest through Melodifestivalen with the songs You in 2003 and Runaway in 2004. Her career blossomed in the early 1990s with success across Scandinavia and releases in Australia and Japan, but suffered a downturn towards the end of the decade. Her greatest claim to international success in the last few years was a previous release called On a night like this which became an international success for global icon, Kylie Minogue.
Pandora is inviting British fans to compare the songs on her website. You can listen here, and conveniently click to the left of the video to purchase her albums! You can watch the official Scooch promotion clip below:
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Well good luck to her but I don't think they're similar enough, though Scooch clearly at least "borrowed" the chorus. This is a shame as I would love to see Scooch disqualified.
I've never heard of her!!! Leave scooch alone!!! Great song!!! Might get my vote!!! Traditional ESC Music at last!!! Go Malta Go UK
This entry is catchy but utter shite - akin to the plague or an STD. I don't blame the artists for the song; obviously the lure of fame is just so overwhelming that they will sell their artistic souls for a few download sales and hollow words in predictable interviews on daytime tv in the hope of eeking out a few more moments of a recording career.
I do blame the BBC though who continue to enter this trash into the national final and act continually surprised when the aforementioned buyers of those downloads or viewers of said daytime tv vote it through believing this to be 'Eurovision'.
It reminds me of an interview in which Terry Wogan was speaking of Michael Ball's Song for Europe national selection in 1992. He said the BBC did everything they could within the rules (emphasising Ball's illustrious ballad-based recording successes) to promote a strong ballad for this Westend star - e.g. 'As Dreams Go By' - but knew all along that 'One Step Out of Time' would win. He went onto explain that this was particularly hard as the BBC genuinely were out to win the thing in 1992. The question to be asked then is, if they knew that to be the case why did they put 'One step...' in the competition in the first place?
No doubt someone will get back to me and talk about external selection procedures etc which is fair enough - but they aren't in place now and yet the BBC still enter this bubble-gum pop knowing very well it will do well - UK Eurovision is about the only place the genre celebrates some, all be it dubious, success.
I can accept that the best song doesn't always win a national heat - but when half-decent songs lose out to this shite we have to ask who put it through to the final six in the first place? And indeed, if the BBC keep on putting this sort of stuff into Making Your Mind Up then no matter how much they spend on a new set in a new studio in Kent, or rejig the format to resemble X factor or Idol, they're not convincing anyone that they are taking the competition any more seriously than they ever have...
I really enjoy Eurovision but it does take away from the enjoyment knowing that your country's entry is fifth rate, unsigned, pop-flop material written on a Mac in a Quiz TV presenter's bedroom. And if you still aren't convinced, you can see Russ Spenser's last attempt at rekindling his career at:
www.channel4.com/en(...)llbegirls/index.html
sweden have already copied love grows where my rosemary goes this year
Who is this woman, she is sooo ugly! Swedish people are usually attractive.
the chorus is almost identical. That shows how old fashioned Scooch's song is. Oh dear! What a rubbish song anyway. Pandora should go for Sweden next year with a song identical to one of Scooch's previous recordings. See whether they like that! lol
Pandora's box has been opened well and good.
The first two lines of the chorus are very similar. Except Pandora's song is much better. Hilarious.
i cant believe this..Scooch s song is a copy of Pandoras song...it is sooo SAME....how can they undermine this????
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What a shame Scooch beat Cyndi.................or did they? I still wonder. I like the Scooch song but its not a winner. Lets hope Cyndi has another go next year and the BBC don't involve the public. Mind you I never thought that Bucks Fizz would win or Katarina come to that. But politics will kill may chance the UK has anyway. Russia will win this year
Hurm yep sound very very similar, but i agree it's quite unlikely that Scooch had heard the original, also more importantly it's not going to win so we can all rest easy. And really if you were going to plagarise a song, you'd at least pick something that wasn't terrible.
Oh for goodness sake! It is common knowledge that the UK are not flavour of the month as far as Eurovision is concerned, and this current "scandal" just seems the latest in a long line of "stories" that are meant to ruin the UK's chances of winning, or at least finishing in a decent position, this year. Oh how I long for the days when the ESC was an innocent music contest that united viewers around Europe and the world! Yes, the first line of the chorus of Pandora's song is almost the same as Scooch's...so what!!!??? It was only a matter of time before part of a song in the ESC resembled another recorded song...it has been going for over 50 years after all! Lighten up everybody...it's only a song contest (although I love it dearly!) The UK almost definately won't win this year, and I am sure that will delight many viewers around Europe...but I think Scooch have injected the element of fun back into a UK entry...and I think the song is fab, a great piece of Europop kitch!
on charlotte church show tonite, the announcer said "everyone loves charlotte except scooch, but theyre a bunch of twats" classic we love charlotte
It would be a defeat for ESC if Scooch will do better than The Ark...
No, it will be a major embarrassment to ESC!
As much as I love Scooch, you gotta admit, its more than just a bit similar.
Pandora only wants the UK kicked out because if Scooch do better than the Ark, it will be a national embarassment to Sweden 
Pandora get back in your box and don't come out again. Why should anyone listen to an has been!
Pandora should be ashamed of herself for writing such crap.
Its just as well Cyndi did not win as if there is all this fuss about Flying the Flag and some obscure Swedish ditty then imagine the furore there would have been over Cyndi's song which as we know, copies exactly, note for note the entire chorus of Loch Lomond.
Sweden has not said anything official in this plagiarism issue. Those of you who make such accusations should be ashamed of yourselves. It is an individual who runs this case; she happens to be Swedish, so what? I think the UK song sucks this year; it has nothing to do with my general opinion of British music in general, UK as such or brits. I'm Swedish, I have loathed many of the songs that have represented Sweden during the years, I always go for the song I like the best and not the colour of the flag. It is a danger when you get too fanatic and overpatriotic. After all, it is just a song contest which is meant to be fun. Not a matter of life and death and "what about you then, huh, you did this and that in 1973 and besides I just found an obscure song from 1971 on YouTube which nobody has heard of before, but it is clear that you stole the drum beat from it".
I don't want any particular country to win. I want Art and Quality to win. Being overpatriotic just shows you have no interest whatsoever in MUSIC.
Um, well, some might say that ESC has nothing to do with real music, I guess ... :-)
If you've never heard of Pandora, that proves it cannot be plagiarism, Nathan... 
I think that Scooch will hopefully win, but I've never heard of Pandora so it's pure coincidence that the songs are alike.
The one sentences who looks very similar from the 2 songs is "we're flying the flag all over the world flaying the flag" just that part of the song is very similar the question now is if this is long enough to be a plagiarism !!!!! if it is ot long enough and i believe that the part is long enogh for that
I hope scooch will go to helsinki start loving the song even if the singing is not goood .
Sweden doesn't have to say a lot abouth plagiarism their entry some years ago "listen to your heart beat" was been recognised as being a plagiarism of the flemish song liefde is aan kaartspel from 1996. unless it has been recognised after the eurovision song contest and sweden did well with listen to your heartbeat.
I hope Scooch are disqualified - Cyndi would get many points for Britain. I would have been ringing the phone line for Cyndi in the final had she qualified because it was not the typical entrant (i.e. Scooch) for UK and she is French which would be very revolutionary for the UK to enter a French lady. It would have been very well responded to from other nations had the UK entered a great singer from France as their entrant.
WHAT HAVE SCOOH DONE? WHY ARE THEY BEING PICKED ON BY SO MANY PEOPLE!!! ALL THEY WANT TO DO IS BRING BACK POP MUSIC!!
IF SCOOCH GET DISQUALIFIED THEN THE ARK, DJ BOBO AND OTHERS SOULD ALL BE DISQUALIFIED!!!!!!
LEAVE SCOOCH ALONE!!!!!
It will not win anyway. It is really hard to predict the winner this year, but I'm 100% positive that it will NOT be Scooch ...
I am more worried how they will manage to sing in Helsinki, as they could not sing in the British contest.
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