another nutter who can't accept that they're talentless

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

As she waited to take to the Britain's Got Talent stage last May, Emma Amelia Pearl Czikai had little doubt that her audition would be a memorable one.

 

"I do have the ability to move people," she told the ITV talent show. "People have cried when they have heard me sing."

 

In the event, though, the only tears that flowed were her own and the memories are far from happy.

 

Piers Morgan hit the buzzer before she had even completed the first line of the power ballad You Raise Me Up, as did Simon Cowell. The third judge, Amanda Holden, hung on until she reached the chorus.

 

Czikai is so aggrieved at her treatment – and in particular at what she sees as the programme's refusal to take into account a medical condition – that she has complained to the media regulator Ofcom and lodged a complaint of unfairness and discrimination with the employment tribunal.

 

The former nurse claims that her performance suffered as a result of cervical spine neuritis, which can cause head and shoulder pain and which affects her ability to hear her own singing voice in noisy environments such as the audition arena.

 

She told the judges that she believed the backing track was too loud when she performed – and that she was not used to the microphone provided.

 

Cowell begged to differ: "Emma, Emma, reality check here, it's not the music; it's not the microphone; it's you."

 

Czikai says that she later performed competently in a television studio on Britain's Got More Talent – shown on ITV2 a few weeks after her audition – but that it attracted only a fraction of the main programme's audience.

 

She claims that the programme makers broke a promise to link the two programmes and were intent on making a joke out of her. "They knew at the time and they did all of that," she said. "I had an illness that affected me at the time and they knew that there was another broadcast that proved that I could sing."

 

She added: "This story is the truth behind the joke. They made one big joke out of me they put it on the YouTube and sold it in 30 countries. The whole world is saying: 'This stupid woman's a laugh.' "

 

Czikai said she was lodging her claim under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 as she believes her medically documented disabilities affected her audition.

 

She also maintains that Britain's Got Talent can be classed as her employer because the auditions were a process of elimination in which candidates competed for short-term employment contracts for a road show.

 

Although Ofcom did not uphold Czikai's claim that she was treated unfairly on the programme as broadcast, the employment tribunal yesterday confirmed that it had received a complaint against Britain's Got Talent and had given the programme makers 28 days to respond. The conciliation body, Acas, has also automatically become involved.

 

A spokeswoman for the tribunal said a judge would wait for a response from Britain's Got Talent before examining the claim and deciding whether it should proceed to a hearing, a case management discussion or a pre-hearing general review.

 

Czikai said she expected Cowell to be called to give evidence if her claim proceeds to a hearing.

 

A spokeswoman for Britain's Got Talent said: "We are aware of the matter and it's currently being considered by our lawyers."

 

Czikai's case was described by one employment law expert as "certainly an unusual claim".

 

According to Marcus Rowland, a partner with the media law firm Wiggin, Czikai's path will be littered with legal stumbling blocks. "The first obstacle she will need to overcome will be to persuade the tribunal that it has jurisdiction," he said. "If the tribunal allows the claim to go ahead and is satisfied that her medical condition is a disability within the meaning of the legislation, she might have better grounds to pursue it as a harassment claim."

 

Such a claim, he added, would require Czikai to demonstrate that she was "subjected to unwanted conduct for a reason which related to her disability which violated her dignity or created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her".

 

Czikai herself is in no doubt as to the consequences of her audition. "My health and wellbeing has been damaged I have been going downhill quite markedly this year," she said. And whereas once she was in demand for charity events, "last year I had no phone calls at all".

 

The optimism of her audition boast – that Cowell would listen to her sing and then "go home and think 'I am so glad I met that woman' " – now seems sadly misplaced. Her relationship with the sharp-tongued svengali appears to have deteriorated from the chummily combative to the downright indignant. "Simon Cowell has accrued for himself too much power," she said. "He's getting more and more powerful and has too much control, just like Rupert Murdoch."

 

Get with the programme - I know that I'm one of the World's 10 worst singers & hence won't audition for one of these programmes

[Jacks Jackie Jackson]

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[Tosh]

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