Roy van der Merwe, the owner of ESC Covers website, the only Eurovision website in Africa, wrote 2 weeks ago to Warner music Poland and the Polish head of press for Liverpool. He gave them 14 days to respond, They just ignored the mail, and now it is published as an open letter for whoever wants to see it. It is tragic that a big company does this. He expected this from less developed countries but not from a developed country in the EU,
The letter is published without the various attachments (pictures) as it is difficult on the website.
To whom it may concern
It is with a very sad heart that I write this to you. I know I am probably nobody in your life, but I simply cannot keep quiet anymore about what I witness in Eurovision and especially this year in relation to Poland.
Why I am writing this, is the PROMO CD singles that delegations brought and handed to the journalists. I have been an accredited journalist at Eurovision for several years and I got a copy of almost everything every year until (and I understand) some countries do not make promo CDs anymore. So, what I have done instead, I pay a designer to design for me a promo CD single cover of each entry in Eurovision. For 2023 he designed all 37 and I attach for you a picture of the Polish song of BLANKA. The whole year CDs form a set and this year it was the ZERBRA CROSSING made famous by the Beatles.
Many people know of my passion and the past few days I received several mails from people informing me that a certain person from the United Kingdom must have received several promo packages from POLAND, either via WARNER MUSIC POLAND or the Polish delegation. Now that is completely fine, but the shock is that this person did not promote it but sold it on E-BAY for a fortune, I saw two copies fetching something like 1400 euro each. I know who this person is, as I had a run in with him in 2018 in Lisbon when we both were staying in the same hotel. In front of 12 witnesses in the hotel lobby, he told me he does not have any more copies of the entry of his country, but he took my name and address and said he will post it once he is back home – it is 5 years later, and I still have not received it.
Now either you do not know what this person does, but now you know, or if you do know, then you are guilty by association of this corrupt practice.
I feel so sorry for desperate fans paying a fortune for something and enriching someone who got it for free.
I have the only EUROVISION library in AFRICA where I display all the entries from 1995. I attach several so you see the delegation or artist, or composer sign it for me, either my birthday name which is on the accreditation badge (Roelof) or Roy which is the English of my birthname and which I use. Or they sign to my WEBSITE ESC COVERS or my facebook EUROVISION SOUTH AFRICA.
I also attach a picture of a CD from STEVEN STERLING, a local singer with 14 songs on of which 11 are Eurovision covers, including from POLAND, SWEDEN, NORWAY, UK, FRANCE, MALTA, AZERBAIJAN to mention some.
I do this mail privately but should I do not get any reaction within 2 weeks, I will like what us journalists do here in SOUTH AFRICA when we do not get answers to mails from people in politics for example, do an OPEN LETTER and publish it in the media like newspapers, facebooks etc.
I have attended physically 28 Eurovisions, from 1993 to 2019. Due to 2020 Eurovision not happening and things like this, I have decided not to attend Eurovision anymore. For someone from a non-participating country, SOUTH AFRICA, to have attended 28 Eurovisions is a record that will not be broken easily.
I was introduced to Eurovision by my hero, German composer RALPH SIEGEL. For me Eurovision is and will always be a SONG CONTEST and without a composer to write a song, there will be nothing to sing. Attending Eurovision, my main focus had always been on meeting the composers and then telling them about my hobby – that I pitch the Eurovision songs I love to SOUTH AFRICAN artists who then cover those in Afrikaans (my home language) or some in English.
Now I did this all for free (as my hobby), translating the Afrikaans lyrics to English so the composers could understand what the new lyrics involve and ask for permission to record it and register it with SAMRO (the South African music royalty’s organization). Since 1995 to 2019 I had done almost 500. I had stopped doing this after 2019 and since then not a single EUROVISION song has been covered in South Africa as I had been the driving force behind this.
I know this is a long mail, but I wanted to write about the situation as detailed as possible.
Thank you.
ROELOF (ROY) VAN DER MERWE
