She won the first season of Showtime and was announced in February as Croatia’s representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. But last night Franka found herself at the centre of a scandal, as it emerged a song with the same instrumental track as her Eurovision entry “Crazy” was released online two weeks before Croatia Eurovision entry. 

Now the Croatian chanteuse has responded in a post on her official Facebook page.

In the post, Franka clarifies that the songs both have the same producer and suggests “Crazy” is the original track.

Talking about the songs, she says the Romanian artist Guez used the “Crazy instrumental”, which would make his song a copy of hers. If that is the case, it would clear Franka to compete at Eurovision 2018 with “Crazy” in its current form.

She also suggests she and her team are looking forward to hearing “cool, new, “crazy” covers,” on the road to Portugal.

The song Crazy is the product of the work of Karpo media group, and alongside Branimir Mihaljevi?, the song was produced…

Posted by Franka on Saturday, March 31, 2018

There was intense speculation on social media last night as to whether Franka might face disqualification.

Although Eurovision rules are clear on what happens when songs have been performed before the official release date, they’re less clear on what happens when elements of songs, such as instrumental, have been used before Eurovision.

In a similar incident in this year’s Maltese national final, Aidan Cassar’s team were forced to revamp his song to ensure compliance with Eurovision rules. Since Franka’s team suggest her song came first, there shouldn’t need to be any changes to “Crazy”.

Some fans were concerned the “curse of 43” may have struck again. There have only been two occasions where 43 countries competed at the Eurovision Song Contest. In all other cases where 43 countries were announced, something untoward has happened, forcing one country to drop out, such as Russia’s withdrawal last year.

What do you think? Should team Croatia have to replace the song’s backing track? Share your thoughts below!

YOU CAN GET MORE CROATIA EUROVISION NEWS HERE

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Vogzal Odessa
Vogzal Odessa
5 years ago

Plagiarism or not, the song is pretty messy and stands little if no chance to obtain any success. I also think it’s about time to get back to the old rule by which the song representing a country had to be wriiten by domestic authors. Anything else is pretty pontless to me.

Siki
Siki
5 years ago

1. That statement was made by her manager.
2. The producer apologized. The song was made for her. He also sells beats on the side, so he uploaded this one among those he sells by mistake. It should have never got there. He also didn’t have the permission of the other co-author.

Molly
Molly
5 years ago

Now it is high time the song got an uptemo remix.

Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago

Well, that HORRID song isn’t hers either, it’s the producer who sold it to different teams.

Yaa
Yaa
5 years ago

In the end I think the Romanian version is better, it’s sassy and irreverent, does more justice to this track. Although the guy is pretty obscure he had more views on Yt. That said I wish good luck to Crazy, no hard feelings!

Matt
Matt
5 years ago
Reply to  Yaa

You are so stupid that you like Romanian version better ? it literally sounds soo bad and cheap you have no taste in music what so ever.

Anita
Anita
5 years ago

https://www.eurovision.al/single-post/2018/03/30/Një-tjetër-shqiptar-në-Eurovision (translated by google) “Croatian public radio and television, HRT, announces that the name of the Croatian songwriter is not surprisingly the Albanian composer Marjan Deda. There has been a lot of speculation on fans of the Croatian song “Crazy” sung by Franka Bateli?, because its beginning resembles the song “Heart of you” by composer Marjan Deda, sung by Denisa Gjezo at the 56th festival. of the song in RTSH. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20iRTslR4hc Now HRT has decided that composer Marjan Deda will be present in Lisbon as part of the Croatian delegation to Eurovision. Marjan Deda, has a long career as a… Read more »

ESC Croatia Fan
ESC Croatia Fan
5 years ago
Reply to  Anita

Nice April Fools joke

Lourdes
Lourdes
5 years ago

It is true, I also read the article. Also if you listen to Denisa Gjezo’s song, you’ll realise that the music at the beginning of the song is the same.

Ja1207
Ja1207
5 years ago

Can we all freaking agree that it was not Franka who made the statement but her manager??

poison
poison
5 years ago

It is always hilarious when people fight over who wrote a terrible song.

Dexter
Dexter
5 years ago

No.

allexo
allexo
5 years ago

Guys, READ this carefully.
Croatia planned to organise a national final, in the form of Dora. However, it was cancelled in the autumn, at Christmas behind close doors, HRT was asking for demos of songs that could represent Croatia in Lisbon. One of the demos was Franka with Crazy. The song was chosen to represent Croatia.
In January, Crazy was sent to London to be revamped, In February it was announced Franka would represent Croatia.
The producer of Crazy was dumb and released the backing track of Crazy to Guez and now we’re in this situation.

Madrid
Madrid
5 years ago
Reply to  allexo

Yes, even one person from HRT said that they chose Franka because she was the only artist who had ready song for the Eurovision.

Madrid
Madrid
5 years ago
Reply to  Madrid

Sorry, one of the reasons why they chose her*

William Lee Adams
Admin
5 years ago
Reply to  allexo

Franka told us in an interview that she wrote ‘Crazy’ after being selected by HRT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZnwUr-umP0

dani77
dani77
5 years ago

In this video, at 11.02 you asked if HRT invited her before knowing the song, or vice-versa, and she said ‘I don’t know’. She is full of contradictions.

dani77
dani77
5 years ago

And imho, those producers who sell songs online, like vacuum cleaners, are not for esc.

123
123
5 years ago

my theory is that, if what allexo is saying is true, they had a deal to lie about when the song was written cause they didn’t want anyone to know that they planned Dora but it failed…i knew that there was something weird about her saying that hrt just called her in january and asked her if she has the song…they are lazy and irresponsible but that much

123
123
5 years ago
Reply to  123

not* that much

Sabrina
Sabrina
5 years ago

What I can take from this whole mess is that countries should be encouraged to pick artists that can write and compose the whole thing by themselves. When you involve a producer on the creative process (producers of course are not villains, they’re important to help the artist shape the final result and figure out how to deliver it to the audiences), you’ll always risk having someone shady or lazy on the mix. If you can find a great singer that can’t write their own material or doesn’t have regular partners that can do that for them, just subvert the… Read more »

Mark C
Mark C
5 years ago

Seems like a whole lotta fuss over a song that has realistically no chance of qualifying from SF1. (I like the song but it isn’t high impact enough imo.)

Yakuchama
Yakuchama
5 years ago

Glad that Franka explained everything. Song is definitely not a plagiarism. Good luck Croatia in Portugal!

el nino
el nino
5 years ago

she is so full of herself to declare that romanian song it;s a cover.. are you kidding me? i dont know who stole from who but she must be more carefull with words

Hada
Hada
5 years ago
Reply to  el nino

Agree. Neither of them did anything wrong, but calling the other guy’s song a “cover” when it clearly isn’t is arrogant and makes me lose sympathy for them.

ESC Croatia Fan
ESC Croatia Fan
5 years ago

Franka’s song is the original one. When you buy the track this comes up:
comment image (if you don’t want to click, it says Franka’s name on the track.)
Denz Beats is an idiot who sold the melody later to Guez, but receipts are on Franka’s side. Case closed.
Bye Felicia Romania!

ESC Croatia Fan
ESC Croatia Fan
5 years ago

Guilty go check it for yourself. Buy the track and you’ll see. It ain’t photoshop.

ESC Croatia Fan
ESC Croatia Fan
5 years ago

Lmao you changed your email.
He didn’t change anything, it was like that from the beginning.

Hada
Hada
5 years ago

It’s now under that name but people can edit things and reupload tracks under a different name. The other guy showed receipts, the same track was under a different name before, and obviously they wouldn’t be selling “Franka-Crazy instrumental” before the song was released, or somebody would’ve leaked it to the general public, which no one did.

Clément
Clément
5 years ago

Disqualification!

Anita
Anita
5 years ago

If it’s true, that it’s the same producer, she would have known that they sold it to someone else and than she should have said something about it… what do you think?

Dexter
Dexter
5 years ago
Reply to  Anita

Since the producer is owner of the instrumental, he can sell licence of instrumental for use to whom he wants.

who claims logic
who claims logic
5 years ago

you are a joke

123
123
5 years ago

comment image

this is what happena when you buy the sample

Hada
Hada
5 years ago
Reply to  123

So the producer changed the name of the instrumental afterwards, big deal.

123
123
5 years ago
Reply to  Hada

well it is a big deal because it pretty clear now that the instrumental was originally made for franka

Hada
Hada
5 years ago
Reply to  123

Just because it’s now sold as Franka – Crazy doesn’t mean it was always the case. It was sold as The Weeknd Style etc. thing before, and the guy probably changed the title to Franka-Crazy afterwards or simply took down the instrumental and reuploaded under the new name. Doesn’t mean anything.

123
123
5 years ago
Reply to  Hada

no, it was the other way around…producer just renamed franka files to the Weeknd Style Song or whatever and sold it like that but when you click on the file it says “franka” and its like that with every file…i didn’t post the picture just because i was bored you know, it has its purpose

Rai
Rai
5 years ago
Reply to  123

I didn’t see any moves from the other side neither. If this guy has right to a song he should prove it on court, not on FB. 😉 This is just a good PR from his side and Franka doesn’t bother because it’s PR for her too.

torn
torn
5 years ago

You can claim anything about what happened before release date, but there are still papers, contract between singer and producer when purchasing the song. EBU doesn’t care as long it was after Sept 1st. Is just a producer who played everybody selling the song to all of them, but is not against EBU rules.

123
123
5 years ago

your logic is so wrong that it can’t be worse than this…she could have been finished with the song 10 years ago and release it today…the fact that she released it on a certain day doesn’t mean that they worked on the song until the very moment of the release…and the running comparison is so stupid that i won’t bother to explain why its wrong

Ali
Ali
5 years ago

Releasing a song on a certain date is purely related to PR strategy, not the date on which the song is finished. Sometimes a song can be finished for many months before the label releases it, because they want to put it out at the strategically best time (look towards some artists, Azealia Banks comes to mind, who had totally finished albums and songs, but their labels kept stalling the release because the artists weren’t generating enough buzz or something similar). So yes it IS logical that Crazy was finished weeks before it was actually uploaded to Youtube. Meanwhile the… Read more »

Joe
Joe
5 years ago

Ah good. No rules broken by Franka or her team. We’re all sorted out.
I for one really like the song. It’s also been nice having Croatia back so it’d suck if they dropped out again.

Josh Kennon
Josh Kennon
5 years ago

Bad attempt by the producer to drum up what he probably thought was potential publicity for himself, using the beat from Franka’s song for another project (and even if you took the producer’s side, it’s STILL an obviously BAD attempt for publicity and comes off that way) — If he really believed in the content and it’s potential, that’s fine, but I’ve never had Franka’s song even CLOSE to qualifying, so I think he’s set for disappointment in his attempt

R
R
5 years ago

Nah, Y’all miswrote the Ottoman Empire. 😎

Yaa
Yaa
5 years ago

You meant Belarus, there, I’ve fixed it for you!

ni ni
ni ni
5 years ago

Just because her’s was officially released after his came out, doesn’t mean that her song wasn’t made first.

Maria
Maria
5 years ago

Franka should be in ESC, but the producer is dirt and must be disgraced. I hope for an article about him, to see his face. That producer did what designers do, when two actresses show up wearing the exact same dress. The designer knew he gave that dress to both of them, but he kept silent, because is good for his business. Dirt. Immoral.

Curve
Curve
5 years ago
Reply to  Maria

Agree. The only person I dislike in this issue is the producer alone. Doesn’t matter if they plan on making a PR out of it as he’s the root cause of all this anyway.

Escphbelgium
Escphbelgium
5 years ago

You spelled Belgium wrong

Hello Leni
Hello Leni
5 years ago

With the posted receipt we at least now know that Franka had the beat first. Denz sold it to the Romanian guy after working with Franka. No drama, no plagiarism.
The producer just wanted extra money.

Hada
Hada
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello Leni

“Franka has the beat first” assuming HRT is telling the truth. The meat of the matter is, the instrumental was up for sale to the public before Franka released Crazy, and Guez’s song was released before Franka’s. Who knows if there were more people using the same $80 instrumental before either of them, hopefully not before September 2017.

Yaa
Yaa
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello Leni

80$! That was the price! It’ s on Guez’ Fb. And it was for exclusivity, also!

Hulu
Hulu
5 years ago

They copied the song it is so obvious!

Anita
Anita
5 years ago

Since the song is forgettable anyhow it doesn’t really matter who covered who – it mustn’t make the final – that’s important!

Anita
Anita
5 years ago
Reply to  Anita

it mustn’t make it into the final (correct English – I try my very best)

Ali
Ali
5 years ago
Reply to  Anita

actually both things you said were correct! the first is more casual and the second is more exact, but both meant the the same thing 🙂

Anita
Anita
5 years ago
Reply to  Ali

Thanks you very much – very much appreciated!

EscAU
EscAU
5 years ago

I’VE FIGURED IT OUT: Denz sold the instrumental to the Romanians – check guez’s personal Facebook he shared an image of the transaction where he bought the instrumental in early January ( left his email details in the pic, logged in and found the transaction with the instrumental download here): https://denzbeats.beatstars.com/b.user.data/_temp/downloads/blame-me-yt_1027425.mp3 called ‘the weeknd style beat blame me’ similar to the dai laga saga where the instrumental is open to purchase…

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
5 years ago
Reply to  EscAU

No problem then. No drama. End of story.
Music Producers have to make money somehow. This kind of thing is going to happen, whether Eurovision fans like it or not. The alternative is to make every Eurovision entry be composed using the Sobral’s method, or alternatively at a highly secretive songwriting camp.

Hello Leni
Hello Leni
5 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

He just confirmed with that receipt that Franka was the first one to get the beat and that it was written for her. Denz just sold his part after working with her. No plagiarism, no drama.

Hada
Hada
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello Leni

It proves Franka used the beat before him (assuming HRT is telling the truth), but not that it was written for her. For all we know there might be more “The Weekend Style Beat Blame Me” songs floating around before either of them.

Hada
Hada
5 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

Music producers have to make money somehow, but not that way with an Eurovision song. He should’ve charged more for an original instrumental with exclusive rights, not used something that he sells to bedroom producers for 80 dollars. Or maybe he did charge more and sold the instrumental behind HRT’s back.

Yaa
Yaa
5 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

80 $ ? For real?

eurovoice
eurovoice
5 years ago

omg guys Guez posted the resits on his fb page that he bought the song and concluded by “croatia gtfo of eurovision.”

The drama is bigger than we think.

Yaa
Yaa
5 years ago
Reply to  eurovoice

He also shows a letter where he is buying exclusive rights of the song!

esc1234
esc1234
5 years ago

Honey, covers come AFTER the release of a song, NEVER before. Her answer seems very suspicious….

Hada
Hada
5 years ago

What a terrible answer. A cover of her song released weeks before her song? Okay then.

Branko
Branko
5 years ago

Then it is a very bad publicity stunt from Croatia, because many fans will not vote for Croatia now. I say… Croatia seems to become a non-qualifier.

Kyna
Kyna
5 years ago

Well Guez posted his receipts on Facebook regarding to this statement. Things are getting more interesting…

West
West
5 years ago

I still think that the guilty one is the person who gave the same song to two different artists. And while I understand why they claim that the Romanian song is a cover, I think they should rather focus on clearing the whole thing up or it’ll only harm their chances at Eurovision.

Zebb
Zebb
5 years ago

This is such a f*ckery by person within production team I JUST CAN’T
Denz must make coming out covered in ashes.

If it’s been exposed after march deadline then I’m double suspicious about whole situation.

besos
besos
5 years ago

Leave Franka alone, she has her dreams just like Ovidiu Anton in 2016. And the raper has publicity. Everybody wins.

Leopabel
Leopabel
5 years ago
Reply to  besos

Sometimes grammar isnt important when the message is clear, but in this case i think you should definitely add a ‘p’ in rapper, or people will misunderstand you

besos
besos
5 years ago
Reply to  Leopabel

I prefer EDIT and LIKE buttons, instead of this REPLY that fills the page with long and narrow comments. Well, you added the ‘p’. Thank you!

123
123
5 years ago
Reply to  Leopabel

lol

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
5 years ago

This seems kinda suspicious to me…. And I don’t really buy that Story, but Croatia won’t qualify with that song anyway, so who cares?

Krava
Krava
5 years ago
Reply to  Weißbrot

Of course she’s innocent together with the whole team minus the producer. The song was composed for her and then Denis just sold the production to the Romanian guy after working with Franka.

Jo
Jo
5 years ago

Croatia won’t be Dq. EBU loves a good rule-breaker.

Eve
Eve
5 years ago
Reply to  Jo

Lol 😀

besos
besos
5 years ago

Romania should not want disqualification of Franka. First of all, I’m sure Franka herself is innocent (she only gave a bad answer when she said is just a cover).
Second, because Franka is surely innocent, she is now just like Ovidiu Anton in 2016.

Lexy
Lexy
5 years ago
Reply to  besos

I dont think romania wants her disqualification

Yaa
Yaa
5 years ago
Reply to  Lexy

I bet Romanian team doesn’t even know about this. Guez is an undergrown rapper.

Roobie
Roobie
5 years ago

This is a stupid reaction, Guess with Ceea ce iubim was published 2 weeks before Croatia is plublished there song Crazy, also its simple crazy is a cover. it’s exact the same song only the words ar different. I say disqualification of Craotia, or is it corruption?

Asterix
Asterix
5 years ago

If the Romanian has documents, it will be the curse of 43.

Asterix
Asterix
5 years ago
Reply to  Asterix

I mean, is not just a cover, if he paid money for the song and has documents.

MomentOfSilence
MomentOfSilence
5 years ago
Reply to  Asterix

Fight for the truth!

ESC Croatia Fan
ESC Croatia Fan
5 years ago

Skinny legend <3

SaEsc
SaEsc
5 years ago

I asked Branimir (writer of song) whose song came first, and he said it’s a cover, he’s still trying to figure out how the romanian guy got the instrumental, made a track and released it two days before the teaser 😛 and that there were a lot of people involved along the way- he solely made the track with denz (producer of *both* tracks)

allexo
allexo
5 years ago

Yes, thank goodness she isn’t gonna be DQ.

beccaboo1212
5 years ago
Reply to  allexo

I’m also glad Franka’s not disqualified. 🙂