Eurovision winner "Toy" accused of plagiarism

Writers of the summer hit and Eurovision winner "Toy" have received a warning letter from Universal Music Group over the alleged similarity between the hit song and White Stripes' "Deven Nation Army." Accordion to a report by Israeli Keshet TV, Doron Medalie and Stav Beger, the writers and composers of the song, received a letter two weeks ago from Universal claiming copyright infringement.

We couldn’t really find any resemblance, but what do you think? Check out the video below with audio examples of both songs.

Ofer Menahem, Barzilai’s manager, said in response: “No legal claim was received, only a preliminary clarification letter on the matter.” Doron Medalie told Israeli paper, Haaretz that he cannot respond because of the legal nature of the matter.

According to Eurovision rules defined by the EBU, participating songs need to be original and if the claim turns to be ruled against Barzilai, it could theoretically disqualify "Toy" from the contest and therefore also disqualify Israel from hosting the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest.

Having said that, the EBU responded to the alleged accusation saying it is paying no heed to these reports of copyright accusations. The EBU told Israeli The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that it considers the plagiarism accusations "baseless rumors."

Universal is one of four world's largest music contributions. "Toy" was distributed in the United States in late May after the musical label Sony BMB signed a contract with the Israeli company Teddy Production. Only time will tell if this warning will lead to an official legal claim.

Netflix comedy and Will Ferrell taking on Eurovision

Netflix announces a new Will Ferrell movie "Eurovision", which will star the SNL actor in a Eurovision-inspired comedy script. Ferrell's first original work for Netflix will be centered around the annual Eurovision Song Contest and will be co-written by Ferrell and Andrew Steele, his long-time collaborator, Funny or Die creative director, and former head writer on "Saturday Night Live". What do you think of this collaboration and are you excited to check out an upcoming comedy show inspired by the contest?

Will Ferrell posing with this year's Latvian representative singer Laura Rizzotto

Eurovision 2018: Public vs. Jury Votes

The Eurovision Broadcast Union has revealed the full split results of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. As the rule goes, full detailed voting results for the semi-finals will not be revealed until after the Grand Final due to potential influence on people's voting patterns. Now the EBU has revealed both the complete details for the semi-final voting and slipt count of grand final scores.

Voting in the Grand Final

As usual, this year the contest continued using the 50/50 system jury votes and televotes collected in each participating country. Viewers were able to vote or any entry except their own based on their location.

Combined Results:

1. Israel: 529 points
2. Cyprus: 436 points
3. Austria: 342 points
4. Germany: 340 points
5. Italy: 308 points
6. Czech Republic: 281 points
7. Sweden: 274 points
8. Estonia: 245 points
9. Denmark: 226 points
10. Moldova: 209 points
11. Albania: 184 points
12. Lithuania: 181 points
13. France: 173 points
14. Bulgaria: 166 points
15. Norway: 144 points
16. Ireland: 136 points
17. Ukraine: 130 points
18. The Netherlands: 121 points
19. Serbia: 113 points
20. Australia: 99 points
21. Hungary: 93 points
22. Slovenia: 64 points
23. Spain: 61 points
24. United Kingdom: 48 points
25. Finland: 46 points
26. Portugal: 39 points

Jury Votes:

1. Austria: 271 points
2. Sweden: 253 points
3. Israel: 212 points
4. Germany: 204 points
5. Cyprus: 183 points
6. Estonia: 143 points
7. Albania: 126 points
8. France: 114 points
9. Bulgaria: 100 points
10. Moldova: 94 points
11. Lithuania: 90 points
12. Australia: 90 points
13. The Netherlands: 89 points
14. Ireland: 74 points
15. Czech Republic: 66 points
16. Norway: 60 points
17. Italy: 59 points
18. Spain: 43 points
19. Slovenia: 41 points
20. Serbia: 38 points
21. Denmark: 38 points
22. Hungary: 28 points
23. United Kingdom: 23 points
24. Finland: 23 points
25. Portugal: 21 points
26. Ukraine: 11 points

Public Votes:

1. Israel: 317 points
2. Cyprus: 253 points
3. Italy: 249 points
4. Czech Republic: 215 points
5. Denmark: 188 points
6. Germany: 136 points
7. Ukraine: 119 points
8. Moldova: 115 points
9. Estonia: 102 points
10. Lithuania: 91 points
11. Norway: 84 points
12. Serbia: 75 points
13. Austria: 71 points
14. Bulgaria: 66 points
15. Hungary: 65 points
16. Ireland: 62 points
17. France: 59 points
18. Albania: 58 points
19. The Netherlands: 32 points
20. United Kingdom: 25 points
21. Finland: 23 points
22. Slovenia: 23 points
23. Sweden: 21 points
24. Spain: 18 points
25. Portugal: 18 points
26. Australia: 9 points

Top Interval Acts, Attempts to Live Up to Riverdance

Interval acts are little performances performed by the hosting county's famous musicians, the masters of ceremony, or by previous year's winner. Here's a selection of fun interval acts from the past 10 years.

2009: Fuerza Bruta performs in Russia

While not Russian, or actually little to do with the hosting country, Russia presented us Fuerza Bruta. A worldwide famous postmodern theatre show originating from Buenos Aires was featured in 2009. It was around the time when the show was performed in Moscow, which wasn't necessarily unique since it's been touring around the world since 2003 and an off-Broadway certified version of it has been permanently in New York City since 2007, it was nonetheless a glorious spectacle.

2016: Justin Timberlake's first televised performance of "Can't Stop the Feeling!"

Europeans got their first exclusive preview of this new number 1 hit a few days before the rest of the world. Timberlake gave his first televised performance of "Can't Stop the Feeling!" during the interval act of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 grand final.

2012: Eurovision Medley Performance by Past Winners

It's quite a tradition for Eurovision hosting countries to pay tribute to the most successful Eurovision winners, in 2012, the organizers decided to bring together five former winners to performer their songs by using the accompaniment of local traditional instruments.

2016: No, Still, This is How You Write a Song

In 2016 we learned what's the secret to winning the Eurovision Song Contest. Bare with us, dress to impress and don't look back!

2016: Choreography Illustrating the Journey to Europe

In 2016, the organizers weren't only praised for an excellent choice of MCs, but in addition to overly entertaining interval acts they also brought focus to the importance of immigrant lives and the ongoing European refugee crisis.

2015: Conchita Wurst brings Eurovision back to Classics

The 2015 Eurovision Song Contest brought back some classical elements to Eurovision while still embracing modern elements in terms of design. The orchestra returned for the opening, as well as beautiful gowns and dresses, while also being forwarding thinking by building a fully recyclable stage and using four women as MCs, including the last year's winner Conchita Wurst. The opening truly brought us to tears.

1994: You can try, but you will never beat the Riverdance

Ah, that's the classic, the best of the best of interval acts. The one that we will always fail to live up to, the good old Riverdance. Our inspiration and muse of interval acts.

FYR Macedonia wins the Barbara Dex Award 2018

In addition to the overall Eurovision vistory, and Marcel Bezençon Awards, another award is handed out to one contestant each year. Since 1997, a fan-voted accolade is handed out to the "worst dessed" artists. The award was founded by Dutch Eurovision fansite The House of Eurovision and has continue to be a popular topic for fans to talk about. The award is given based on the contestant's live performance and has been controversial among fans for being superficial and demeaning, while it continues to make headlines across the community.

From 43 artists, viewers were asked to vote for who they believed was the worst dressed artist of the 2018 song competition via Songfestival.be. The top five included Netta (Israel), Vanja Radovanovic (Montenegro), Sennek (Belgium), and Jassica Mauboy (Australia), but the worst of the worst according to fans was this year's entry from FYR Macedonia.

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The lead singer Marija Ivanovska wore a pink jacket back-to-front, with a pair of silver shorts being visible underneath the stand-out pink. Mid-performance the jacket was removed to reveal a silver sparkly top, with a knitted pattern to top it off.

Top 5 Songs That Won Marcel Bezençon Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards, named after the founder of the Eurovision Song Contest, are special awards given to outstanding acts based on press, artistic and compositional success. Awards were first handed out in 2002 in Tallinn. Initiated by Christer Björkman (Sweden's representative in Eurovision, 1992) and Richard Herrey (member of the Herreys, 1984 Eurovision winner from Sweden), awards are granted in three categories - the Press Award, Artistic Award, and Composer Award. Awards are traditionally handed out backstage, shortly before the Grand Final. These are the top 5 songs ever to receive one or multiple awards.

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Occidentali's Karma

Press Award - Italy 2017

Italy's entry to Eurovision 2017 needs little introduction. With over 200 million views on Youtube this song became a mega-hit across Europe. The catchy melody, humorous lyrics, and naked ape dancing made us all scream "La scimmia nuda balla Occidentali's Karma" Panta rei, and taking you Francesco Gabbani for enlightening us with youre pure joy and genuine energy.

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Rise like a Phoenix

Press Award - Austria 2014

Another song that the world simply couldn't ignore. Little known, but in addition to the overall victory of Eurovision 2014, the Austrian singer Conchita Wurst was also granted the press award making her the diva of the night and bring an important message of tolerance and acceptance to millions of viewers.

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Calm After the Storm

Artistic Award | Composer Award - The Netherlands 2014

As if landing a second place at the Eurovision Song Contest isn't good enough, The Common Linnets representing the Netherlands was praised for it's artistic quality and excellent composition. Despite a mellow and soothing melody, it reached number 9 in the UK singles chart, and first in many other countries, like Belgium, Iceland, and the Netherlands.

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Euphoria

Artistic Award | Composer Award - Sweden 2012

Without a doubt the most successful recent song to come out of the contest Euphoria was also praised for it's artistic quality. After winning the whole contest by a landslide of votes, it received two Marcel Bezençon Awards - Artistic, and Composer Awards. The song was received positively across the world ranking high not only across the European market, but also in Australia. The song peaked at the top spot in several countries including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, and Switzerland. It spent 15 consecutive weeks in the UK Top 100, making it the most successful Eurovision song in history, ahead of "Waterloo" by ABBA, and "I Can" by Blue. The single sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

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Milim

Press Award | Artistic Award | Composer Award - Israel 2010

While the Israel's entry didn't reach top 10 in the grand final, it managed to attract attention from pretty much everyone else involved winning the press, artistic and composer award in 2010. The song was welcomed by polarizing opinions from people calling it dramatic and beautiful, or up front boring. That did not stop the powerful ballad to reaching everyone's hearts. In an interview the singer Harel Skaat described it as a song about "separation, of any kind. Separation of lovers, of a family. In Hewbre, 'Milim" means words. The words are the most memorable thing we have after a separation, words are very powerful and the are engraved in our minds and hearts". This song will definitely stay in our hearts for a long time.

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