Must Be the Music
Contents |
Host
Co-hosts
Judges: Sharleen Spiteri, Jamie Cullum, Dizzee Rascal
Web coverage (Must Be the Music Backstage): Rickie Haywood-Williams and Melvin Odoom
Broadcast
Princess Productions for Sky 1, 8 August to 19 September 2010
Synopsis
Fearne Cotton hosts a talent competition open to any kind of music act. Nationwide auditions, overseen by judges, former Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri, jazz singer Jamie Cullum, and rapper Dylan Mills aka Dizzee Rascal, result in 15 acts being put through to one of three studio-based semi-finals. In these live shows, the public can vote for their favourites to progress to the final, held at Wembley Arena. The winner receives £100,000, and creative and promotional support.
Champion
Emma's Imagination
Trivia
Though not a success in the UK, the show was sold overseas, and ran for some years in Poland.
Sky was taken to court in early 2014 on the grounds that Must Be the Music infringed upon a programme idea developed by a couple several months earlier. The couple alleged the programme had copied their ideas to have contestants perform original songs, have songwriters as judges, use coloured badges, and to make performances available for download immediately after each episode. The judge found that this didn't amount to a fully-realised format that might (possibly) be protected under law. There were also some differences from the complainants' format: open auditions, no record industry involvement, heats and a final rather than the "whittle" process seen on The X Factor. The judge in the case ruled that Sky had demonstrated that Must Be the Music had been developed independently, primarily as none of the commissioners saw the complainants' document, and thus ruled in Sky's favour.
