.. have been outdone! (Re Any Dream Will Do school choir competition.)
Just seen this posted on the site..
The Joseph Choir Search
"We are sorry to disappoint all those waiting for the results of the Joseph choir search which were due to be announced on the website today (Thursday 31st May). A decision has been taken to re-enter all choirs into the competition.
Although we have taken great care to analyse and verify the results, we believe that on this occasion the process has been compromised by technical difficulties and evidence of block voting, and trust in the integrity of the results may have been damaged. In view of the unique value of the prize and the passionate interest in the competition from schools and so many enthusiastic young children, we have decided on this occasion to set aside the online rating results and rely instead on a panel, in the interests of fairness. This is our first experience of running a website competition of this kind which has attracted such an unprecedented response, so viewers can be assured that lessons have been learned and that this will not happen in the future.
All entrants are currently being viewed by the same expert panel who selected the Josephs in the regional audition process. The panel will then select twenty finalists from the 843 entries, and the winner will be chosen by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Howard Goodall to perform on the Any Dream Will Do final on Saturday 9th June, as originally planned.
We sincerely apologise to the school choirs and those who have voted who will be disappointed with this outcome at such a late stage. The response to the competition was overwhelming, and while every effort to cope with that demand was made, we now feel that the only way to make this competition totally fair to all those involved is to put all the choirs before the panel.
For more information on why this decision has been taken and for information about the judging panel, visit the Frequently Asked Questions page."