Britain’s Got Talent singer’s £43m damages claim thrown out of High Court

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A Britain’s Got Talent contestant who sued the show’s producers for more than £40 million has had his claim thrown out at the High Court.

Robert Aslanyan filed legal action against Fremantle Media Limited in October last year, claiming it acted negligently by failing to notify him that an audition during the Covid pandemic had been cancelled.

He also claimed it breached a contract with him by failing to decide his application.

Fremantle opposed the claim and applied to the court for it to be dismissed, with Judge Mark Gidden ruling in a hearing on Friday that Mr Aslanyan’s case was “hopeless” and “completely without merit”.

The judge said: “The defendant maintains that this claim is unwinnable, it is right to be struck out, in fact, it is something of a mercy to end the claim now, and I agree.”

He added that the claim was “flawed” and “has already gone on long enough”, instead ordering that Mr Aslanyan pay £48,188.50 in legal costs within 28 days.

Judge Gidden said that Mr Aslanyan planned to perform a song named Our Mother Queen for series 15 of the programme, which he dedicated to the then-monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

The judge continued that performing the song was Mr Aslanyan’s “great aspiration” and that he anticipated “it would yield a very life-changing commercial success”, the value of which he placed at “just over £43 million”.

Mr Aslanyan had represented himself in the claim and did not attend Friday’s online hearing.

Mark Winden, for Fremantle Media, told the court that Mr Aslanyan applied six times for “at least the last four” series of Britain’s Got Talent, the 17th of which concluded earlier this year, but never got through to an audition before the celebrity judging panel.

After applying for series 15 in 2020, Mr Aslanyan was later mistakenly invited to attend an in-person audition in December 2021, but no physical auditions were taking place due to the Covid pandemic.

Mr Winden said that Mr Aslanyan travelled to Cardiff with several family members for the audition, despite being sent an email by the producers confirming that the original invite was sent “in error”.

The lawyer added that a “basic sense check” would have told Mr Aslanyan that the invitation was false and that he “should have understood” that it was a mistake.

Mr Winden continued that Mr Aslanyan’s claim argued that the company was “contractually obliged” to inform him of its decision related to his application, and to make its decision “strictly based on artistic performance”.

But the court was told that producers had not breached the show’s rules nor been negligent towards Mr Aslanyan, with Mr Winden claiming the producers had “unfettered discretion” over applications for the competition.

The barrister said that the claim “set out no basis” for how Mr Aslanyan had lost the money he was asking for, adding that it was “unwinnable” and “should not have been brought in the first place”.

He said: “He has had many auditions for his acts. The issue was that none of them were before the celebrity judges.”

He continued: “This claim does not disclose any legally recognisable claim against the defendant and so it is a claim suitable for strike out.”