GREECE

The Greek Final was held on March 4th at Enastron Music Hall in Athens, hosted by Mary Sinatsaki & Doretta Papadimitriou. The winner, chosen by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%), was "One last breath" sung by Maria-Elena Kyriakou.

After NERIT became a fully fledged member of the EBU, the Greek broadcaster announced that they would be opting for a national final to select its entry. The show was, once again, made in conjunction with another broadcaster, Mad TV. The show took a long time to get going with a plethora of past acts, dancers and even a Eurovision quiz before getting to the actual acts started. The show was a very simplistic one, compared to many around Europe but did the job of selecting its entry well enough.

The song is slow ballad, something which Greece has not sent to Eurovision in a long time.  It seems to share some similarities to last year's Austrian winner, especially in the crescendo and build up at the very end of the song. She also shows some great emotion in her voice which seems to share that angsty style. However unlike "Rise like a phoenix" the song structure is really lacking. It doesn't really have a noticeable and repetitive verse and chorus structure mainly as the mood and backing of the songs changes all the time, so even when you hear a repeated bit, it feels like you actually haven't heard it before. The ending is the best part but almost by the that point it is too late.

Like many acts that go to Eurovision these days, Maria-Elena came to prominence through appearing in a reality TV show. In this case winning the first series of The Voice Greece in 2014 in which she impressed many with her take on songs in both Greek and English. Although representing Greece, she actually hails from Cyprus. She has a very good voice - being able to do the breathiness at the start AND the full on voice at the end. Her only stumbling block here is that her breathy voice is heavily accented and at time you ahve no idea what she is saying.

During the show, Maria-Elena was backed just by a pianist. Even on a small stage it seemed bare and over-minimal and the team are going to work hard on somehow making this more of a spectacle. I don't think she would benefit from dancers, unless they contribute something to the story of the song. She could possibly do with some backing singers to make the ending more powerful or even the addition of more musicians might make it feel like quite a orchestral performance.

In some ways it's nice to see that Greece have chosen something a little more reserved and a little less 'stereotypical Greece at ESC'. It's also nice to see they have chosen a female singer who doesn't need to rely on a ridculously short skirt to divert attention or backing singers to hide behind. This all said and done it is a very mediocre song and is very much a wannabe of last year. But being Greece this will more than likely qualify with ease but I don't see it troubling the left hand side of the scoreboard.

ARTIST - Maria-Elena Kyriakou

SONG - One last breath

MUSIC - Efthivoulos Theoxarous, Maria Elena Kyriakou

LYRICS - Vaggelis Konstantinidis, Evelina Tziora