The Greek song was revealed on March 7th - the reveal was made during a special show on ERT called "Eurovision Se Eidon". The official video was also available to watch soon after on youtube. Back in October, the Greek broadcaster announced their act and that song submissions would be welcomed. The Greek act for Malmö is Marina Satti. singing the song "Zari" (Dice)
Marina Satti was born in Athens to a Sudanese Arab father and a Greek mother from Heraklion, where Marina herself grew up. As a result, her music combines traditional Greek, Arab and Balkan sounds with urban elements, rhythms, and production techniques. She learned classical piano at an early age and had classical vocal training in high school. She went on to to study architecture without graduating - but earned a first degree in lyrical monody (a style of Greek tragic ode) and then a second degree in advanced classical studies, In addition she also studied jazz at the Nakas Conservatory and at the Berklee College of Music. Her jazz prowess grew as she formed part of the EBU's European Jazz Orchestra. In 2016, Satti released her debut single "Koupes", and her follow up single, "Mantissa" charted in the European Union's Official Top 100.
Like many songs this year, the structure of the song is not what one may have expected. According to the lyric text, there are 5 verses, however some of these run into each other and others have a totally different tune and rhythm to the others. The beginning perks your ears up straight away as Marina begins in a rather high part of her vocal register. Here there are two verses using the same structure followed by a third verse with a totally different rhythm. There is a main earworm/refrain which has the 'ta-ta-ta' repetition with sang lines in between. This part is also repeated at the end of the song as a dance break refrain. During this last refrain the backing track is beefed up by extra instruments, mostly of Greek origin, which really cements that new/old synthesis.
The video for this song is rather fun; it is a take on a stereotypical tourism videos, blogs, vlogs and TikTok style shorts. They take in the stereotypical tourist traps of Greece as well as adding more urban and modern scenes of the country. You can see that Marina is trying to merge - in the audio and the video - the ancient and modern feelings and sounds of Greece. The message at the end of the video also sums up what she is trying to achieve. From what I have also seen, this song has received very positive reviews from the Greek press and many people seem to be behind this, which is a good sign! The song its seems rather unpredictable and, unless they make this their schtick, many watching at home might find this just too complex and strange. With the song sounding rather Greek, and being almost entirely in the Greek language, it could equally make this amusing, entertaining or rather unhospitable to the semi-final televoters. I quite like the start of the song, and I enjoy the main refrain, but the placing of everything is just too unconstructed for my brain to contend with. As much as the video is trying to help the the song into our consciousness, I feel like a more ordered and stage specific performance could hone and narrow the possibilities and give it a real presence. All in all this is an interesting listen (for all its messiness) but I feel you either get this or you don't - especially on first listen.
ARTIST - Marina Satti
SONG - Zari
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - K. Beshkov, G. Borri, N Kodonas, Oge, J. Palmer, M. Satti, M. Solidakis, J. Stolar, Vlospa
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