GREECE 2025

The Greek act and song was selected on January 30th via the show "Ethnikós Telikós 2025". The winner was chosen via the combination of votes from a Greek jury and international jury (25% each) and public televoting (50%). Going to Basel is Klavdia with the song "Asteromáta" (Starry eyed) 

Klavdia came into the public eye aged 18 after taking part in “The Voice Greece”. Not only did she join Elena Paparizou’s team but she also reached the final. After this exposure, Klavdia signed a record deal with the Greek label Panik Records, She currently has 6 singles under her belt as well as a self-titled EP. Her work is a mix of English and Greek language songs (some being dual translations) and her style is generally in the indie pop sphere.

The aura of this song and performance in unashamedly Hellenic although it has a rather ethereal feel. The backdrop starts with dark/blue tones then becomes red and stormy. Klavdia is wearing an off-white outfit which is long sleeved and with long, wide trousers of the same colour. The trousers also have a very long diaphanous drape at the back which is wrapped around the stage and used by the dancers  She is on stage with 5 dancers all in beigey light skin tone outfits. After an a capella start we quickly go into 2 verses and a chorus. At the end of the first chorus, a syncopated beat comes in which gives the song a bit more of an edge. This is then followed by another short verse and and elongated chorus to finish. Klavdia does not move much, due to the outfit but does a good job of emoting down the camera. The dancers frame the stage well, but don't really do very much.

I am a little confused, if not underwhelmed, by this entry but not all is lost. Klavdia is a good strong singer; her vocal runs are impressive and her voice has a lovely tone and texture. The backing track has a very calming sound to it and feels like something you might hear while having a massage or spa. Right now, the current staging is not good enough and if Greece sent this to Basel it would feel way too small and directionless. The song is not bad; the beat drop really drives the song on in the second half but once again the staging does not reflect this at all. I don't understand why the dancers are doing so little - they might as well not be there at all! The song is not dynamic and does not require a full on dance routine but does deserve some staging .This entry won over much more creatively staged entries so tells you how much the voters were willing to see the potential. On the plus side I hope that a bigger stage - and possibly bigger budget - might spark something really creative, interesting and engaging.

ARTIST - Klavdia

SONG - Asteromáta

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Arcade, Klavdia Papadopoulou

GREECE 2024

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

GREECE 2023

The Greek song was revealed on March 12th via the premiere of the official music video on youtube. At the end of January the Greek broadcaster ERT, announced that Victor Vernicos had been internally selected as their representative. However due to a legal challenge over the transparency of the internal selection and the Greek rail tragedy the premiere was put off longer than expected. The song he will be singing is "What they say".

 

Victor Vernicos Jørgensen was born in Athens to a Danish father and a Greek mother. He started piano lessons at the age of four, singing lessons at eight,  guitar lessons at ten and began writing his own songs at the age of eleven. He has also been overseeing the production of his own music, attending Music Technology courses.  Most of this releases have been in English. In 2021 he released his first song in which he wrote music, lyrics but also produced it himself and has been taking voice and performance lessons with Nina Lotsari. He is set to be Greece's youngest Eurovision representative ever.

 

The song starts with Victor singing the first verse over the top of an atmospheric strumming guitar. As it runs into the pre-chorus a similarly atmospheric piano comes in too. The chorus is much more motivating and the drum beat comes in at almost double time, Victor's voice also goes from croaky and low to something a bit more open and tuneful. The driving beat continues through verse two but comes out again during the pre-chorus. There then begins two back-to-back choruses. The first starts with the atmospheric guitars then the slightly low down beat. The second has a stompy 'we will rock you' clap-along vibe to the finish.

This song has some contemporary appeal. His voice, especially the lower parts, is reminiscent of George Ezra while the music of the chorus takes a lot of influence from "Castle on the hill" by Ed Sheeran. I almost feel like this song would normally stand out as a Eurovision entry as well as be something that could easily be slipped in on any contemporary radio station. It is a little unclear from the video how much personality is going to come through to the tv screens - especially in the 100% televote semi final. Most of the video is spent sitting down, bending over, looking away from the camera and being a little too over-expressive in the arms. Finally, his main video outfit with the boots and shorts seems a rather odd choice.

There are, unfortunately for Victor, already a glut of male guitar-led ballads at this year's contest and with this one being one of the last to reveal, I am feeling some fatigue. To stand out betwixt all the other ballads and rock entries will require a lot of thought; to their credit Greece does have a decent record of providing interesting staging. I feel like this needs to go fully introvert until the final minute where it can kind of explode. I also hope he can actually emote clearly down the camera to the point where he doesn't effect his vocals. On the track they seem very produced and I will be very interested to see how this song sounds and feels with live vocals. If he is very good, I would love even more to see a pared down approach in order to show this off.

ARTIST - Victor Vernicos 

SONG - What they say

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Vaggelis Gialamas, Kostas Kalimeris, Steve Sovolos, Victor Vernicos Jørgensen

GREECE 2021

The Greek song was released on March 10th with its video premiering on the official Eurovision youtube account. Last year's Greek representative, Stefania, was selected again, and her song was once again selected internally. The song she will sing is called "Last dance"

At the start Stefamia is on a street wearing a plain top, light coloured trousers and trainers. She runs to the top of a building and jumps off only to be saved by landing on the back of a Pegasus. She is then taken to a strange land where she meets and embodiment of Atlas who is holding up the heavens. As she touches his face the column he is holding lights up, starts spouting water and the statues around her turn to life. Stefania herself is now wearing a black sequined top and a silver skirt. This then turns into aTron-esque silver as the song she too is made of light. However we then realise that she's still on the street looking at a traffic control and it has all been a dream...

The song starts off slow with a long verse and long prechorus however the pace picks up in the chorus proper. From here is has a very 80s/Flashdance feel and very much in the ilk of some of the retro sounds in the charts. The chorus has very few lyrics which are repeated a lot but also feels rather short especially as there is so much oh-oh-oh-ing after it too. the second verse this time is up-tempo but is followed by a shortened pre-chorus which brings in a short break before getting back up to speed. Then comes a short bridge before an even shorter chorus. The song ends on a rather shouty "Let's Dance" which might come across a bit too much when live.

Although representing Greece, Stefania is actually from The Netherlands, however her parents are originally from the Evros region of Greece. Despite being one of the youngest contestants, she is very experienced on the stage. in 2013 she took part in The Voice Kids in Holland and then joined a famous children's' choir. In 2016 she performed at Junior Eurovision for The Netherlands as part of the girl band Kisses and came 8th. She then started a solo career which included some publicity in Greece and recently she has broadened her horizons having acted in a couple of Dutch TV shows and movies.

The problem that this song has is that there are a) some many female up-tempo numbers and b) so many 80s tunes that it just feels like one of many. I'd say this possibly feels a bit more 'retro' than some of the other female led bangers that with the right styling this might come across more authentic than others. The other issue is that the song structure focuses too much on the build up at the start that the end of the song feels like a bit of a mad rush. Without sounding too stereotypical, the song itself doesn't seem very Greek, which many of their entries have done. Why the pre-chorus at the start had to be 4 lines long, I don't get. Shortening it would allow for a proper full chorus at the end AND would get away with the over used fire/wire rhyme. I much prefer this to "Supergirl" which was a little underwhelming. However its chances of standing out don't look good considering the similar competition already on the menu. I think it's chance really will depend on how well she can actually belt this out.

ARTIST - Stefania
SONG - Last dance
WRITING CREDITS - Diverno, Dimitris Kontopoulos, Pavlos Manolis, Anastasios Rammos, Gabriel Russell, Sharon Vaughn

11/03/12 GREECE

The Greek Final was held on March 12th at the River West Mall in Athens, hosted by Maria Kozakou & Giorgos Frantzeskakis. The winner, chosen by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50 %)was former x-factor Greece contestant Eleftheria Eleftheriou with “Aphrodisiac”

The song is a modern up-tempo number which Greek influences, in a similar style to Kalomera a few years ago but this is nowhere near punchy enough. The song is quite formulaic and does get quite boring after a while. The chorus, it has to be said, is very poor as most of it is made up of a string of ‘oh-oh-oh’s and then has maniac rhyme with aphrodisiac (saying that there is not much choice!)

Eleftheria is flanked by 4 dancers whom she interacts with a lot and even walks on their backs in heels – OUCH !!!! The performance is a bit on the showy side and her walking abilities are really quite over dramatic and OTT. I think she may have to tone it down a bit for Baku. I say this as the performers mimed in the Greek final and was more of a ‘show’ than a song selection contest. In addition the stage was in the middle of a shopping centre (?) and waswas not very big at all and so the performance in terms of its size and movement has scope to improve.

Although the song does not deserve much praise it will almost certainly get enough votes to qualify – with ease – even if she sings flat from start too finish. Obviously if she can sing live and in tune she will increase her chances much more.

SONG – Aphrodisiac

ARTIST – Eleftheria Eleftheriou

COMPOSERS – Dimitri Stassos, Mikaela Stenström, Dajana Lööf

LANGUAGE – English

GREECE

The 2nd March saw the Greek final held at the Alpha TV Studio in Athens. The winner would be chosen by a shared percentage of viewer voting (50%) and "expert" jury (50%).

The show starts with a very serious looking drumming act. Then the host, Lena Aroni, joins the stage and introduces her co host who is in a separate studio filled with ‘euro fans’. This means that the performances will be held in an empty studio apart from the production team and the jury (how strange!) Maybe this is really is on a tight budget !
Then the Jury is introduced - Marina Lachana (ERT official), Andreas Pylarinos (musician), Giorgos Pavrianos( lyricist), Bessy Malfa (actress), Michalis Tsaousopoulos (DJ and radio producer) they are stilling next to the stage.

Nikos Touliatos of the drumming act is back, accompanied by the acts performing today. In turn they sing parts of their own possible entry. They perform almost acapella except for one of the drummers banging a water cooler :o/ Actually a very nice way of starting the show, it at least makes them look like they are supportive of each other and have taken an interest in each others songs.

There is then a recap of Lena’s winning song from Oslo last year
Next on stage is a performance, but not for the pre-selection lovingly called “PIGS”, which is quite frankly weird and although the bloke is singing in English not a word can be understood. (After further research I discover the song in dedicated to Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain and was about the monetary crisis. I am still non the wiser!) Then we have a messages from Raphael Gualazzi, Paradise Oscar, Senit and Blue (Anthony shows off this Greek too!) Then we have one from slimy ol’ Sakis Rouvas *shudders*

1. Kokkina Halia - Come with me
This is a rock song with a very heavy drumming beginning. The singer of the song is not doing a bad job and looks quite confident although the choruses do seem a bit of struggle for him. The song is very pacy and moves from verse to chorus to verse and back again with almost no break. The chorus has a hook but it doesn’t quite work. The ending is a little weak.

2. Valando Tryfonos – The time is now
This is a typical ballad. Valando is wearing a very Greek style white dress with 2 backing singers behind her. The song is OK, at least the chorus as some memorable qualities to it. At times it feels like she is not singing at full blast or that the mic isn’t working. She also copes well with the key change for the final chorus. No performance qualities at all. Another weak finish.

3. Trihimitonio – Hamogela
The three members are holding yellow balls with smiley faces on them. They are also backed by 3 scantily clad cheerleader type girls playing the drums. Very strange ! They are at least making an effort to engage the camera as well as doing a type of dance routine during the “oh-oh-oh” parts. A very catchy song, but I think the Greek audience will see this as too cheesy.

4. Antigoni Psychrami - It’s all Greek to me to me
This is Greek inspired electro number. Antigoni is backed by 4 dancers also dressed in vey small back outfits. She seems to be suffering with her voice. Not sure if it is a sore throat or she is getting affected by the dance routine. The song is interesting to listen to but it all seems a bit garbled. The title of the song gets lost in the performance.

5. Loukas Giorkas Feat. Stereo Mike – Watch my dance
The two guys are joined by 3 break dancers and a big red table which the singers and dancers stand and sing on. This is the most strange song, which will probably appeal to the Greek viewers. Stereo Mike raps slowly in English and Loukas does a strangely times Greek warble. Neither party is particularly memorable…. Apart from the table….

6. Nikki Ponte – I don’t wanna dance
Nikki starts and seems to be having vocal/mic issues too, however when she moves up a key she is much better. She is joined by 4 male dancers dressed in the most bizarre cat suits seemingly replicating a swimsuit with nude cut out bits :o/ Nikki has a good voice but she is much better when not dancing. The song is a little repetitive and does not really grow.

After a recap of the songs, the phone lines open for 20 minutes.

Then some international guests appear.
First we have the Cypriot entrant Christos Mylordos, singing (or should I say miming) his song “San angelos s'agapisa” The whole performance is a bit static and amateurish.
Next on the stage is Glen Vella from Malta, performing “One Life” by himself but still dancing away. He is certainly energetic and engaging to watch if not a little awkward.
Bulgaria’s Poli Genova is up next with “Na Inat”. Her performance is visually very similar to the one she gave in the national final. She tells the host she wants to go to Düsseldorf to win !

The voting is now closed !

David Lynch takes the stage and performs some unplugged renditions of past Greek Eurovision entries. Initially he is sat on a park bench accompanying himself by using claps and body slaps but then starts using maracas in the shape of fruits. He then joins the drummers in a rendition of the backing track to “Opa”

The winner (and only the winner) is announced and it is Loukas Giorkas Feat. Stereo Mike with “Watch my dance”


SINGER – Lukas Yiorkas ft Stereo Mike
SONG – Watch Me Dance
MUSIC – Eleana Vrahali
WORDS – Giannis Christodoulopoulos