Germany's Eurovision entry Cascada accused of plagiarising last year's winner "Euphoria"

Pop star Cascada (Getty Images)

Cascada, the German entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, has been accused of plagiarising last year’s winning song “Euphoria” by Swedish singer Loreen.

Cascada’s song “Glorious” was selected over the weekend to represent Germany at the contest held in Sweden later this year.

German broadcasting station NDR has commissioned a musical audit to examine claims made in the country’s leading tabloid newspaper Bild that the two songs are “absolutely identical”

Iris Bents, a spokesperson for NDR, said the station would publish the results of the musical audit but played down the allegations.

“Every year there are attempts to create scandals around the Eurovision Song Contest and the participants,” she said.

Bents also said that last year's Swedish win “Euphoria” was accused of being a copy of Rihanna and David Guetta’s “We Found Love”.

Natalie Horler, lead singer of Cascada, denies the accusations and told local news agency DPA: “If you like, we can superimpose one song on the other. They are two different songs.”

However, Tina John, a phonetics expert quoted in Bild am Sonntag, said: “The chorus uses the same accentuation, the ending peaks with the same combinations. The singers even use the same breathing methods.”