It’s not Eurovision without a little (or a lot) of controversy. When it comes to this competition, it’s something of a spectator sport.

Couple that with Sweden being one of the biggest players in Eurovision. Scandi-pop is hot and Sweden consistently reaches the top 10. Their national competition, Melodifestivalen, is popular viewing in other countries. So it’s unfortunate that this year’s winner, Måns Zelmerlöw, and his song Heroes have been plagued with reports of plagiarism.

There are two separate issues. One is that Heroes sounds too similar to David Guetta’s Lovers On The Sun. The second is that the stick figures used in his original official video were copied from another source. This is the most serious of the charges because he had to remove that video and use another.

So, let’s check it out. I’m posting the winning video from Melodifestivalen so you can see the stick figures. He will not be able to use this special effect for Eurovision.

Edit. It seems the video with the stick figures is no longer available. Ah well. Lawsuits can be nasty things. Here is the official video for Heroes.

Here is David Guetta’s Lovers On The Sun.

Definitely similar, especially the beginning, but it’s hardly the same song. To be honest, I like Lovers On The Sun better. Maybe it’s the video, which is super cool.

Heroes is an upbeat, techno-pop song that can get a crowd going, and Måns Zelmerlöw has a playful stage presence and a good voice, but is that enough to overcome the controversy? Hard to say. He’s getting publicity, which is getting the song heard, so it might not be a bad thing.

Best wishes to him, regardless!

Find out more about Måns Zelmerlöw here.