By Niamh Anderson
AN OBSCURE singer-song writer considered taking legal action when she realised Susan Boyle’s latest album cover was remarkably similar to her own.
Katrina Rublowska believes her record Pockets of My Heart – released 10 years ago- is almost identical to SuBo’s new album, Someone to Watch over Me.
The 48-year-old special needs teacher was made aware of the coincidence when her partner sent her an email with the image of SuBo’s new album, set to be released next month.
When she got the email, she was shocked to discover the two record covers were amazingly similar in style.
Miss Rublowska, who lives in south London, is framed in the bottom left hand corner of the CD, in front of a leafy green background.
The singer is wearing a purple open-necked cardigan, dangly earrings and is staring into the far distance.
Meanwhile, SuBo is also positioned on the bottom left corner of her new CD, wearing a purple open necked top, in front of a bed of green leafy lavender.
She is also looking wistfully towards the camera lens.
Miss Rubolowska said: “It was astonishing – it’s such an extraordinary coincidence. It’s not just the idea that’s the same, but the colouring, our hair colour, our skin tone. It’s all almost identical. We even look a bit alike.
“Not only that, but I’m 48- the same age as Susan was when she came second in Britain’s Got Talent. We also sing the same kind of music.
“I recorded ten songs, a mixture between my own original tracks and covers of some classics- a bit like Susan does. It’s mostly folk and blues,” she said.
The teacher, at an east end school in London, released her album ten years ago, but it was not available to buy in shops.
“I only recorded 500 and I still have half of them left in my house.”
The American born singer said the album cover was done for her by a man she met at a party.
“I bumped into a photographer called Paul Hamilton at a party. I told him I was doing an album and he offered to do the art work for me.”
She said she hadn’t seen him since then and joked that he might have moved on to Sony BMG as an album designer.
“You never know, he might have moved up in the world,” she joked.
The teacher and her partner had considered taking legal action over the remarkably similar art work but have now decided that it is nothing more than a strange coincidence.
Her partner Mark Smith said: “It’s quite remarkable. We did have a think about taking legal action but then we thought that Susan Boyle’s team have probably never seen it before.
“It just seems like a very strange coincidence,” he added.
A spokesperson at Sony BMG said that artists had specially designed the CD cover for SuBo and that there was “absolutely no chance” that it had been ripped off. They refused to make any further comment.
