Contestant sues Britain’s Got Talent

Jul 23, 2010 |

London

A rejected contestant on a hit British television talent show is suing the programme after claiming she was subjected to “humiliation” and “degradation” by the judges, it was reported on Thursday.

Emma Amelia Pearl Czikai, 54, fell foul of acid-tongued judge Simon Cowell when she sang a pop song on Britain’s Got Talent, in an episode broadcast to millions of television viewers in May 2009.
In the acerbic style that has made media mogul Cowell famous in Britain and the United States, the judge dismissed her “horrible singing voice” and she left the stage to chants from the crowd of “off, off”.
Now Czikai is trying to have her complaint heard at an employment tribunal, although lawyers for the show opposed her efforts at a pre-tribunal review in London on Wednesday, the Daily Mail tabloid reported. She claimed she was the victim of disability discrimination because she suffers from fibromyalgia, a condition characterised by widespread pain and exhaustion, and could not sing in noisy raucous environments.
—AFP

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