AVROTROS, the Dutch national broadcaster, has announced that T-Square’s entry for Junior Songfestival, “Count on Me”, has been cleared of plagiarism allegations.
Allegations of plagiarism were brought up by several social media users. They claimed that “Count On Me” sounded similar to “Boy With Luv” by K-Pop band BTS, with some claiming that “Count on Me” had directly copied “Boy With Luv”. AVROTROS then launched an investigation with music experts.
In a statement posted on the official Junior Songfestival Instagram account, AVROTROS explained:
“We believe that these allegations are groundless. The K-Pop sound in both ‘Boy With Luv’ and ‘Count On Me’ is used by a multitude of international artists and by T-Square. We firmly stand behind this sound and are very happy with the song. For this reason, we have decided to keep the song in competition.
Music is supposed to bring people together and not divide them. We hope T-Square enjoy their performance during the final of Junior Songfestival.”
The final of Junior Songfestival 2020 will be held at the Rotterdam Ahoy, the venue for Eurovision 2021. The final will be held on September 26, with the winner going on to represent the Netherlands at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The four acts competing in the final are:
- Unity – Best Friends
- Jackie and Janae – It’s You And Me
- T-Square – Count on Me
- Robin – Mee (Along)
Junior Eurovision 2020 is to be held on November 29 in the Polish capital of Warsaw. The competition is being hosted by the Polish public broadcaster TVP, after Viki Gabor took victory with the song “Superhero”. The show will be staged in a TV studio facility in Warsaw, not a large arena as has been seen in previous years.
Matheu represented the Netherlands last year in Gliwice with the song “Dans met jou”. He finished in 4th place with 186 points.
Image Source: AVROTROS / Source: Junior Songfestival
The Netherlands in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
The Netherlands debuted at the first edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 and is one of only two countries to have taken part in every edition to date. To date the country has only won the competition once. Their only victory came in 2009 when Ralf Mackenbach performed “Click Clack” scoring a total of 121 points, this was just 5 points more than runners-up Armenia and Russia. The Netherlands narrowly lost the contest in 2011 when Rachel performed “Teenager”, she lost by 5 points. The Netherlands’ worst result came in 2015 when Shalisa finished in 15th place out of 17 competing countries.
