A Britain’s Got Talent contestant is suing both judge Simon Cowell and the show for $5 million for discrimination and for taking away her “self respect and dignity” after a botched audition attempt.
Emma Amelia Pearl Czikai claims she was humiliated after Cowell, former judge on the American super-hit American Idol, mocked her performance of Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up.”
After a few notes, Czikai was buzzed off by judge Piers Morgan. She demanded that the music be restarted, but Simon Cowell quickly followed suit. After a third restart and buzz, Czikai told the judges, “I think it would be really nice if you gave people a chance…I mean, this song is a really lovely song.
Cowell responded, “Emma, it is a beautiful song – when you’re not singing it.”
When Czikai tried to blame her performance on the backing track and the microphone, Cowell continued and said, “Emma, Emma, reality check here. It’s not the music, it’s not the microphone, it’s you.”
Now, Czikai is claiming that a medical condition prohibited her from performing. She now says, “Because I have these illnesses, singing is all I can do for my future; therefore, it is important for me not to have 13 to 20 million people all over the world thinking I cannot sing.”
Czikai continued on to say, “I have been ridiculed, mocked, and hated. I have had my self respect and dignity taken from me unfairly and been humiliated on a daily basis. It was the microphone. It was the music. I have not got a horrible singing voice when I am in a fair environment that meets my disabilities.”