Thea's €18,000 nightmare
Parents shocked by move on eve of departure
Eurovision contestant Thea Garrett will leave for the contest's semi-final burdened with a garnishee order for €18,000 issued against her over an alleged breach of contract with her former manager, Grace Borg.
Ms Garrett, who is expected to leave for Oslo today to compete with her song My Dream, will effectively have any money in the bank up to €18,000 deposited in a special account until the courts decide on the case. If she goes through the semi-final on May 25, she will compete in the final two days later.
The court upheld a request by Ms Borg, a former Maltasong chairman, and Andrea Milana, co-owner of Exotique Record Label, who claim that Ms Garrett is breaching an exclusivity contract she had with them when she made certain deals with Public Broadcasting Services, which organised the local contest.
Ms Borg and her business partner will now have to proceed with action against Ms Garett within 19 days or the garnishee order will expire.
When contacted, the singer's parents, Marion and Sergio Falzon, said they were shocked by Ms Borg's move on the eve of their daughter's departure to Oslo.
"We expected the civil case already instituted to proceed normally but this garnishee order is only designed to cripple us financially and ruin Thea's experience. Why else would she wait until this moment?" Mr Falzon asked, still incredulous at what happened.
The request for the garnishee order was filed on the same day Ms Borg and Mr Milana also filed a lawsuit against PBS.
They are claiming they had signed a contract for the exclusive management of the artist and that action taken by PBS breached their exclusive rights over the singer.
PBS had given certain rights to third parties, such as to communications company Go, to use the winning song as a mobile ring tone without having the right to do so, they claimed. Moreover, a contract was signed with a foreign recording label to include the song in an album that would be sold internationally.