We received this statement from MoS:
When Avicii and Ministry of Sound were looking for a vocal for his club smash instrumental, ‘Fade Into Darkness’ (formerly known as ‘Penguin’), they sought out various topline songwriters. Unfortunately for them, the demo seems to have found its way to Simon Cowell and Syco.
A source close to Ministry of Sound said:
“Ministry of Sound signed Avicii a year ago and have been working on vocal ideas for over 6 months on the track. Pete Tong, Annie Mac, and Scott Mills have been playing ‘Penguin’ for months now, but this week we’ve realised Simon Cowell and Leona Lewis have stolen our record. ‘Collide’ is identical to Avicii’s track!”
Last night, in a series of tweets, Avicii said:
“To answer everyone, the first time I heard Leona Lewis Collide was today. I didn’t produce it and neither me or my manager could approve it… I’m just upset for someone taking credit of our idea before I had a chance to release it… And for the time and effort that has been put into this by my manager and label”.
His manager, Ash Pournouri, released the following statement:
“We never got to hear the track before it was promoed on radio, how could we clear anything? We’re not amateurs – we don’t sign papers without knowing what [we're] getting into.” – Ash Pournouri, Manager and Executive Producer of Avicii
…wow! That’s quite a powerful accusation and one we thoroughly support. Anybody who loves EDM is almost sure to hate the commercial claptrap that Cowell represents. We hope MoS pursue this and take some form of action.
