Before the contest, the songwriters were accused of
plagiarism, with some claiming that the song had plagiarized "
Liefde is een kaartspel",
Belgium's entry for the
Eurovision Song Contest 1996, with "Listen to Your Heartbeat" facing disqualification. After "Listen to Your Heartbeat" won Melodifestivalen 2001, Agneta Thigerström, project manager of
Sveriges Television Malmo said that "there is nothing to worry about and nothing that can change Friends' victory. And nothing will happen now." On February 23, 2001, Björn Kjellman, in an interview on show
P4, spoke about the similarities between the two songs. On the same day, Kris Boswell, host of
Radio Sweden, played the song for judges at the
Melodifestivalen 2001 after-party, to which most replied "It's just a coincidence". On March 1, 2001, Swedish newspaper
Aftonbladet ran a poll asking readers if they thought the song was plagiarism. The vote came to around 70% saying that they thought the song plagiarized "Liefde is een kaartspel". On a Belgian TV special in February 2001,
Lisa del Bo, the singer of "Liefde is een kaartspel", voiced her opinion, saying that "It's very similar indeed, but I don't think it was active plagiarism. It might be on purpose." The EBU Reference Group eventually ordered that the matter had to be settled in court, with the song eligible to compete if the court did not find any evidence of plagiarism. In 2003, it was announced that after Belgian music association
SABAM had determined that the song was plagiarism. Composers of "Listen to Your Heartbeat",
Thomas G:son and Henrik Sethsson, both denied the allegations, but after both SABAM and the lyricists and composers of "Liefde is een kaartspel" threatened a trial, the Swedish delegation eventually came up with a monetary settlement. == Critical reception ==