Britain’s Got Talent singer loses £43m lawsuit against ITV show over failed audition

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 a lawsuit 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 the company breached a contract with him by failing to decide on his application.

Fremantle opposed the claim and asked the court to have it dismissed, with Justice Mark Gidden ruling at a hearing on Friday that Mr Aslanyan’s case was “hopeless” and “completely without merit”. The judge said: “The defendant submits that this claim is unwinnable, it is right to be struck out, indeed it is something of a mercy to dismiss the claim now, and I agree.”

He added that the claim was “flawed” and had “gone on long enough”, instead ordering Mr Aslanyan to pay £48,188.50 in legal costs within 28 days. Judge Gidden said Mr Aslanyan had planned to sing a song called Our Mother Queen for series 15 of the show, which he dedicated to the then monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, and he hoped it would stand him in good stead to win the £250,000 prize money.

In preparation for performing his song and what he says was a 300-mile journey, Mr Aslanyan claims he even contacted the Queen’s office “to ask for blessings”, receiving in return a letter of thanks from Balmoral Castle.

The judge went on to say that performing the song was Mr Aslanyan’s “great aspiration” and that he anticipated it would “produce a life-changing commercial success”, the value of which he estimated at “just over £43 million”. Mr Aslanyan had represented himself in the action and did not attend Friday’s online hearing.

Fremantle Media’s Mark Winden told the court that Mr Aslanyan had applied six times for “at least the last four” series of Britain’s Got Talent, which is hosted by duo Ant & Dec, but had never made it through to an audition before the celebrity judging panel which is led by music mogul Simon Cowell and fellow judges Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and Bruno Tonioli. 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 audition was taking place due to the Covid pandemic.

Mr Winden said Mr Aslanyan travelled to Cardiff with several family members for the audition despite receiving an email from producers confirming the original invitation had been sent “in error”. The lawyer added that a “basic sense check” would have told Mr Aslanyan the invitation was fake and that he “should have understood” it was a mistake.

Mr Winden went on to say that Mr Aslanyan’s claim argued that the company was “contractually obligated” to inform him of its decision relating to his entry and to make its decision “strictly based on artistic performance”. But the court was told that the producers had not breached the show’s rules nor been negligent towards Mr Aslanyan, with Mr Winden claiming that the producers had “unfettered discretion” over entries to the competition.

The lawyer said the claim “laid no foundation whatsoever” for how Mr Aslanyan had lost the money he was seeking, adding that it was “invincible” and “shouldn’t have been brought in the first place”. He said: “He had many auditions for his acts. The problem is that none of them were in front of celebrity judges.”

He continued: “This claim does not disclose any legally cognizable allegation against the defendant and is therefore a claim liable to dismiss.”