London Greek Radio

In essence, tonight was supposed to be Eurovision night but our favourite song contest, like other events around the globe, has been postponed.

Instead, we’ll be watching “Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light”, a non-competitive replacement “song contest” which honours the 41 countries which would have competed to win the 2020 Eurovision crown.

Hosted by Chantel Janzen, Edsilia Rombleyand and Jan Smit, who would have fronted the ‘regular’ Eurovision from the Ahoy Arena of Rotterdam in The Netherlands, it promises to be just as spectaculous!

Eleni Foureira, whose ‘Fuego’ tune came second for Cyprus in the 2018 Eurovision, returns with a virtual performance in the “Eurovision Heroes” segment of the show.

Other returning artists, alongside the current “Class of Eurovision” have a virtual sing-song [from their countries] to thank essential frontline workers battling Coronavirus daily.

In a time before “social distancing” and “staying at home”, there was often occasion for Cyprus and Greece to come up with their Eurovision trump-cards.

Cypriot broadcaster CyBC internally selected Sandro Nicholas [real name Alessandro Rütten] to fly the island’s flag.

The entry ‘Running‘ is a deep, house-style inspired electronic-pop song and is dark and dramatic. The lyrics have a deeper meaning about mental health issues and depression and is very relevant now, as this once taboo-issue is ever-more discussed openly, with its impact on males in particular.

The 23-year-old German-Greek singer-songwriter, worked for months to find the right song and he co-wrote it with Greek producer Teo Arkitekt, Australian singer-songwriter Alfie Arcuri, Sebastian Rickards, and Octavian Rasinariu.

CyBC told LGR, “Having gone through depression himself, Sandro’s performance underlines the tunnel of darkness that we must keep on running through in difficulties or catastrophes but also of the strength needed to stand tall and not fall.”

The video is dark and moody with Sandro appearing as a solitary figure.

As the song choruses on about ‘running’ progressively, it comes to a visual-climax in a hopeful and optimistic way, with shades of light on the screen.

For Greece, 17-year-old Stefania Liberakakis stood out as the nation’s candidate this year. She was born in The Netherlands to Greek parents from Greece.

‘Superg!rl‘ is an up-tempo, pop-dance track with ethnic beats that are really catchy. The song has already entered the radio-friendly playlists of London Greek Radio for several months.

The song’s lyrics are about social adolescent empowerment and young people attaining their goals, as well as trusting their super-innate-strength to achieve their ambition.

Unfortunately, Eurovision fans won’t have the chance to see the Greek ‘Superg!rl’ on stage, however, there will be news about the singer’s Eurovision adventure.

The broadcaster confirmed Stefania would be Greece’s Eurovision 2021 Song Contest act, with a new Eurovision tune up her sleeve especially composed for next year. The details of the entry are not yet known, although we think it might include the current team of creative songwriting talent.

Eurovision veteran, Dimitris Kontopoulos and Arcade comprising of Pavlos Manolis, Diveno and Gabriel Russel composed and produced ‘Superg!rl’. The lyrics are co-written with Swedish songwriter Sharon Vaughn.

The music video was filmed in Athens which included the Fokas Evangelinos dance school of performing arts.

Mr Evangelinos who has staged some of the biggest and effective performances in Eurovision for Greece, Russia and Azerbaijan, has confirmed his involvement in the Greek song next year.

To top off the night, all 41 acts will come together, from their separate locations across Europe, for a rendition of the United Kingdom’s 1997 winner ‘Love Shine a Light’ by Katrina and the Waves.

Watch Cyprus and Greece Eurovision videos here: lgr.co.uk/videos

Article written by Tony Neophytou

Greece has confirmed that Stefania will be the nation’s representative at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam taking place later this year.

The 17-year-old Greek-Dutch singer Stefania Liberakakis will perform in the Eurovision Second Semi-Final at Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena, this May. She was born in Utrecht in the Netherlands to Greek parents from Sofiko Evrou in Greece.

The Greek broadcaster ERT announced the artist and song-title ‘Superg!rl’ in an official statement this month. The ethnic up-tempo song, where Stefania sings about the adolescent youth, a self-empowerment song which draws on the innate strength each person possesses against which battling challenging situations, or issues.

Stefania had taken to Instagram thanked the Greek delegation and responded she was “proud” to be flying the Greek colours at the Eurovision, told music fans.

The Eurovision veteran Dimitris Kontopoulos and music production ARCADE, composed and produced the tune, co-written the lyrics with Sharon Vaughn. The Creative Director Fokas Evangelinos will be responsible for the stage show, well-known in Eurovision circles, for numerous impressive stage acts in the contest.

The songwriters confirmed a modern ethnic up-tempo dance-pop track for Greece, with Greek instruments. The producers describe a “radio-friendly current hit song” with immense potential, standing out amongst the competitors in the Eurovision’s line-up.

The Eurovision tune and the official video-clip whose filming was shot in Athens, will be released in March. We at London Greek Radio are super-excited to be premiering our Greek entry very soon…

The Greek Eurovision delegation which included head Dimitri Papadimitriou and spokesperson Maria Koufopoulou chosen the so-called ‘Dream Team’ earlier this year.

In 2016, Stefania represented The Netherlands at Junior Eurovision in Malta, as part of the three-piece girl group Kisses. Their upbeat song ‘Kisses and Dancin’ placed eighth in the contest.

Stefania came to fame in 2014, when she participated on The Voice Kids. After wowing judges with her audition performance of Alicia Keys’ ‘No One’, Stefania made it as far as the Battle round before being eliminated. She also sang as part of the Dutch children’s choir Kinderen voor Kinderen.

More recently, Stefania has worked on her solo pop career. Late last year, Stefania released ‘Turn Around’, a sophisticated contemporary pop track. Her debut single in 2018, ‘Stupid Reasons’ reached No1 in the Kids Top 20, a hit single, composed and written by J Joachim Vermeulen Windsant and Maarten ten Hove. In March last year she released the single ‘Wonder’ which was the soundtrack to the animation film ‘Wonder Park’.

Stefania has also been working on her pop career in Greece. Last summer, she performed at the Mad VMA music awards, as part of an all-girl cover of Daddy Yankee’s ‘Con calma’ along with Ilenia Williams and Konnie Metaxa.

As well as singing, Stefania also has an acting career. She has starred in the Dutch high school mockumentary Brugklas, the recent dystopian action film De club van lelijke kinderen (The club of ugly children) and made an appearance in the teen comedy 100% Coco New York.

The Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Finals are on 12th and 14th May, with the Grand Final on Saturday 16th May 2020.

Stefania will perform ‘Superg!rl’ in the Second Semi-Final on Thursday 14th May.

London Greek Radio wishes Stefania and Greece the best of luck in the Eurovision.

Article written by Tony Neophytou

Cyprus has confirmed that Sandro Nicholas will be the island’s representative at the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam taking place later this year.

The Cypriot broadcaster, CyBC, announced the news to excited Eurovision fans in an official statement towards the end of last year.

The 23-year-old German-Greek is an up-and-coming artist and a star of “The Voice Germany” from 2018. He managed to turn all four chairs with Shawn Mendes’ ‘In my blood’ where he reached the semi-finals.

Sandro Nicholas’ real name is Alessandro Rütten and he was born and bred in Germany, with an American father and a Greek mother from Zakynthos. He speaks Greek and travels to Greece frequently. He plays the drums and guitar and at the age of 15, started to write songs and formed his own rock-band.

Sandro has a soulful, pop and rocky-edged vocal and exudes a confident manner on stage.

As well as ‘The Voice’, Sandro was the American entrant at the New Wave Festival in Russia last summer. One of the judges was the Greek Eurovision hit-maker veteran, Dimitris Kontopoulos, who was said to have put in a word with the decision-makers in Cyprus for Eurovision.

Cypriot bosses have stuck to the format that has served them well in previous years by internal selection of the artist and song.

The formula has yielded fairly good results for Cyprus with Eleni Foureira’s spectacular 2nd place and Tamta scoring 13th in Tel Aviv last year.

Mr Nicholas will face the task to uphold Cyprus’ impressive qualification run, with five qualified entries in a row from 2015 to 2019.

Cyprus received 120 songs, all vying to compete as the island’s act for 2020 and have shortlisted the options to three songs. The exact details about the song will be released at a later date.

CyBC chose Mr Nicholas out of several artists, trusting the young and talented potential to resonate with the Eurovision voter.

Sandro is playing a constructive role in the creative song-writing to the entry, in order to find the killer-tune for this contest. Mr Nicholas has told media, he wants “an emotional song”, one that is a genuine, honest song.

In his interview to Cypriot media, Sandro said, “[I am] absolutely captivated. This country is probably one of the most beautiful countries I have ever been to. I’ve been to Zakynthos, Greece. I am Greek, but this place is magical and I’m so honoured and so pleased to be able to represent such an amazing country.”

He added, “It’s an honour for me, [to represent] for the Cypriot flag, and I want to do my very best. It’s fantastic, it’s a dream for me.”

The Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Finals are on 12th and 14th May, with the Grand Final on Saturday 16th May 2020.

London Greek Radio wishes Sandro and Cyprus the best of luck in Eurovision.

Article written by Tony Neophytou

Cypriot broadcaster CyBC has confirmed that Cyprus will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in the Netherlands Ahoy Arena Rotterdam next year.

Eurovision fans have eagerly awaited for developments as to what Cyprus may have up its sleeve in 2020.

The Cypriot bosses are most likely to be in favour of sticking to the format as it is now: internally selecting both the song and the artist, which repeats their more-recent successful formula. The Cypriots have a solid qualification record which is no doubt attributed to the formula of the last few years.

Cyprus have received 120 song entries from Greek and non-Greek song-writers, and Eurovision hit-makers of past contests. The powers that be have already short-listed a few, strong entries as the Cypriots rapidly proceed with their ambitious, concrete-solid approach and ideas to Eurovision. The selection will be responsible to pair the right song, with the relevant artist, to compliment the entry. The end of a process that would ultimately choose a performance-artist that has the complete package, for the contest.

The most likely scenario is to have a big named artist, one that is a Cypriot or Greek in the Greek-speaking music industry, flying the Cypriot flag for the 2020 Eurovision, and there will no doubt be an air of anticipation amongst fans.

Cyprus have five Top 10 consecutive results in the semi-finals, which is pretty impressive. These songs have often been contesting tightly in Eurovision Semi-Finals from 2015 to date.

The outstanding result of 2018’s Eleni Foureira’s ‘Fuego’ which finished second placed; agonisingly close to achieving the island’s first ever victory.

Tamta with the song ‘Replay’ scored a respectable 13th place in Tel Aviv, holding up the favourable results on the left-side of the scoreboard.

Cyprus made its Eurovision debut in 1981 with the band ‘Island’ finishing 6th. In 1982, the legendary and iconic artist Anna Vissi scored 5th with ‘Moni I Agapi’. A number of Cypriot singers have comprised that illustrious list including Alexia, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Constantinos Christoforou and Evridiki, Ivi Adamou and Despina Olympiou. Locally British-Cypriot Lisa Andreas, who was 16-years-old performed the Mike Connaris ballad ‘Stronger Every Minute’ in the 2004 contest. All in all thirty-five hopefuls have pinned their colours to the mast as Cypriot acts in the biggest music competition in the world.

The Cypriot delegation will be certain to want to maintain the good run of form, following the recent successes by John Karayiannis, Minus One, Hovig, Eleni Foureira and Tamta.

Eurovision fans will be patiently waiting to find out the island’s thirty-sixth representative.

The Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Finals span from May 12th and May 14th and the Grand Final airs on Saturday 16th May 2019.

For all of your Eurovision news on Cyprus, make sure you regularly check back to lgr.co.uk and tune in to London Greek Radio to hear the latest music news.

Article written by Tony Neophytou

Singer Tamta, has officially recorded the Cypriot entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest at studios in Stockholm, Sweden.

She will sing ‘Replay‘, described as an up-tempo pop “banger”, at the 64th annual contest in Tel Aviv this May.

Georgian-Greek singer, Tamta Goduadze, 38, was announced as CyBC’s artist to represent Cyprus last December, officially instigating the Cypriot ‘well-drilled’, organised Eurovision machine quite early this year.

The song’s composer Alex Papaconstantinou AKA Alex P, was the man behind Eleni Foureira’s ‘Fuego’ – last year’s impressive runners-up position in the competition.

He has been assisted by Sweden-based songwriters Teddy Sky, Viktor Svensson, Kristoffer “Bonn” Fogelmark and Albin Nedler.

The songwriters have penned hits for some of the biggest-named artists in music such as One Direction, Mark Anthony, Demi Lovato, Avicii, MO, 5SOS, Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj, Arash and more.

Tamta told Cypriot TV, (translated) “I’m going to (sic.Tel Aviv) without forecasting what position Cyprus will achieve. I hope that what we will present on stage will make you proud. I’d like to thank everybody for their support and hope that you stand by me on this wonderful Eurovision journey.”

Tamta revealed that she felt that the tune complimented her signature pop-style credentials and she was impressed with the creative team behind the track, which convinced her to fly the Cypriot flag in the competition.

She is soon to start filming the official music video to the Eurovision track this month.

The release date for the Cypriot tune is confirmed for March at the earliest, which enhances the fans’ excitement even more.

Cyprus competes in the Eurovision first Semi-Final on Tuesday 14th May at 8 pm GMT.

For all of your Eurovision news on Cyprus, make sure you regularly check back to lgr.co.uk and tune in to hear “Replay” on LGR in the coming weeks.

London Greek Radio wish Tamta and the Cypriot delegation the very best of luck in the competition.

Cyprus’ Eurovision Entry for 2019 Confirmed (click here for more Eurovision news) 

‘Replay’ team, from left to right, Alex Papaconstantinou, Viktor Svensson, Teddy Sky, Tamta, Kristoffer “Bonn” Fogelmark, Albin Nedler (picture)

Article written by Tony Neophytou

Tamta Goduadze will represent Cyprus at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv in May.

The Cypriot broadcaster CyBC announced the female artist and song a few weeks ago, ending weeks of speculation.

Tamta will sing ‘Replay‘, a pop-dance, up-tempo number.  Her entry is penned by Greek-Swedish hitmaker Alex Papaconstantiou, aka ‘Alex P‘, the man behind Eleni Fouriera’s ‘Fuego’ – the impressive runners-up from last year, along with Sweden-based songwriters Teddy Skye, Viktor Svensson, Kristoffer “Bonn” Fogelmark and Albin Nedler.

Tamta, 38, was born and raised in Georgia, where she started singing at the age of five and moved to Greece at the age of 20.  After singing on a TV reality talent contest, she was signed by a major record label in Greece and has a back catalog of several hits.

The sure-fire Eurovision track is believed to be exactly moulded for Tamta’s signature pop-style credentials.

CyBC chiefs felt that Tamta was right for this year’s contest as she is perceived earnestly to have the “complete package” that comprises of a strong ‘live’ singer and entertaining act.

The Cypriot tune will be officially released in February or March, further maximising Eurovision fans excitement.

Cyprus also returns with Eurovision artistic stage director Sacha Jean-Baptise, the woman behind ‘Fuego’.  She will be tasked with elevating Tamta’s stage routine ensuring that it will translate into points on the scoreboard.

The Head of the Cypriot delegation, Evi Papamichael explained that a big named artist would be a necessary solution to answer the Eurovision’s competitiveness, amidst so many countries, which numbers 42 this year.  She said that Tamta was the broadcaster’s preference this year.

Tamta has had a long-time quest to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest and almost came close to achieving it on previous occasions.  In 2007 Tamta was pipped to the post by Cypriot singer Sarbel, in Greece’s Eurovision heat stages, with the ballad ‘With Love’.  In 2016, she missed the deadline for the Greek selection process by a few hours with the subsequently-released track ‘Unloved’.

Tamta felt it an incredible honour to be representing Cyprus, a nation which has always strongly supported her music endeavours and undertaking this bold task, was a way of her giving something back to her Cypriot fan-base.

Having released four studio albums (including a Best Of) and multiple hit singles, Tamta is frequently heard on the LGR airwaves.

For all of your Eurovision news on Cyprus, make sure you regularly check back to lgr.co.uk and tune in to hear “Replay” on LGR in the coming weeks.

London Greek Radio wish Tamta and the Cypriot delegation the very best of luck in the competition.

Article written by Tony Neophytou

Cyprus has confirmed that Greek star Eleni Foureira will be the Cypriot representative for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest held in Portugal.

Cypriot broadcaster CyBC made the official announcement and the title of her entry ‘Fuego’ (Spanish for “It’s Fire”), is written by Alex Papaconstantinou, or Alex P, a Greek-Swedish producer, well-known in Eurovision circles.

The up-tempo Eurovision track has a distinctive, maybe even innovative, ethnic feel with it sometimes being referred to as “ethno upbeat”.

It is a modern pop song that embellishes the instrument of the clarinet or ‘klarino’ as a familiar ethnicity trait in Greek, as well as Mediterranean music.

CyBC chiefs felt that the Albanian-born singer was right for this year’s contest as the upbeat song compliments Eleni as a singer and dancer.

Eleni, who will be 31 by the time of the contest in May, began her music career in 2007 as a member of the Greek girl group Mystique, before pursuing a solo career after the group disbanded in 2009. She is charismatic, who’s stage-skills are expected to “attack” the Cypriot entry effectively which will no doubt, help this upbeat song.

The staging of the entry has been assigned to the internationally acclaimed artistic director and choreographer Sacha Jean-Baptiste, who has extensive experience at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Cypriot bosses had ditched ideas of a Cypriot sing-off to find their entry’s hopeful and instead made the offer to Eleni’s Panik Records, therefore, internally selecting her for it.

In a statement, the singer said she felt incredibly honoured to sing for Cyprus and is hoping to set the leader board on fire, with her catchy track.

”I would like to say a big thank you to CyBC and all the Cypriot people, for giving me this opportunity. It is a great honour for me to represent this wonderful country which has supported me that much for all of these years.

She added, “My Eurovision song is called Fuego. It is written in English; only its title is Spanish. I am very glad that Alex has composed such a great song. This has actually been the reason for my positive answer to this Eurovision invitation. My promise is that I will do my best.”

Eleni was born in Fier, Albania and is a Greek artist of Albanian origin. She has lived in Greece from a very young age when her family settled in Kallithea, Athens.

Her back-catalogue of successful London Greek Radio hits have included her current hit ‘Vasilissa’, along with ‘To Kati’, ‘Ase Me’, ‘Chica Bomb’, ‘Reggaeton’, ‘To Party De Stamata’, ‘Ston Erota Tin Trela’, ‘Fotia ft. Nevma’, ‘Pio Erota Pethaineis’, ‘Rantevou Stin Paralia’, ‘Anemos Agapis’, ‘Pio Dinata’, ‘Ti Koitas’, and ‘2018 S’agapo’.

Eleni has always desired to be at Eurovision, revealing that it has always been a childhood dream of hers.

In 2016 she proposed ‘Ti Koitas (Come Tiki Tam)’ to the Greek national broadcaster ERT, but they refused it. Greece failed to qualify for the final for the first time that year with Argo.

Eleni almost made it to Eurovision in 2010, when she competed in the 2010 ‘Ethniko Teliko’ with ‘Kivotos Tou Noe’. While she missed out by coming second place, it did not diminish her Eurovision goal, which is lucky for Cyprus as she’s tipped to have a “killer track.”

In the last few years, Eleni has released four successful studio albums and multiple singles. One of those hits was ‘Sto Theo Me Paei’, a Greek cover of the 2015 Eurovision entry of Israel ‘Golden Boy’ by Nadar Guedj.

More recently she has released singles in both Greek and English and in 2017 scored a new international hit with the song ‘Send For Me’, a collaboration with successful producer and rapper A.M. SNiPE.

‘Fuego’ will be released in the coming weeks, with no official date set yet.

The LGR website will have the song on its release date in the weeks leading up to the competition.

The Cypriot delegation will be quietly optimistic about their qualifying chances for a fourth year, following the recent successes by Minus One, John Karayiannis and Hovig.

Cyprus competes in the First Eurovision Semi-Final which airs on Tuesday 8th May, on BBC Four. The Top 10 countries to qualify are assured a place in the final on Saturday 12th May, on BBC One.

London Greek Radio wish Eleni Foureira and the Cypriot delegation the very best of luck in the competition.

Article written by Tony Neophytou

With the dust barely settled to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest since the elapse of a few months, the Cypriot broadcaster CyBc is expected to be announcing very soon the launching of a nationwide song contest, as a way of selecting our Cypriot tune, at 2018’s Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon.

The drawing up of the specific rules for our Cypriot national final will be soon to be officially released, and it’s believed, this will be as quickly as August or in the autumn. We here at London Greek Radio have also learnt some information about what shall comprise the local competition. The public contest will be applicable to Cypriot singers, ‘maybe’ also songwriters and composers… We ‘insert’ here… another option… the powers that be are seriously thinking of appointing a well-known ‘composer’, to pen our Cypriot tune. Our very own UK Cypriot songwriters, producers and singers of Cypriot origin, will have eligibility to be entering the race (only in the case of an ‘open’ final). In years gone by, our talented British Cypriot artists have noticeably left a strong impression on it, taking advantage of their chance to be entering Eurovision finals on the island.

Now, as Cyprus regroups and looks towards the future let’s take a moment to reflect on the last couple of successful years. This year’s finalists ‘Hovig’ came 5th in the semi-final, continuing the qualifying streak, as we cannot forget the achievement of the up-beat Cypriot band Minus One in 2016. In 2015 John Karayiannis with the song ‘One Thing I Should Have Done’ – written by UK Cypriot Mike Connaris won the only Cypriot final we have seen, in the last three years.

The local Eurovision delegation is certainly looking to make it a fourth qualification Cypriot entry in a row, from the selection procedure they are about to embark on.

With the prospect of having a national song contest to choose our next entrant, the country’s Eurovision strategy for 2018 is starting to take shape.

Head back to the London Greek Radio website for all of the latest developments including the release of the formal rules and regulations for the Cypriot Final, outlining the steps that must be taken to submit your potential entry to the Cypriot song competition.

Article written by Tony Neophytou

Last night Cyprus and Greece celebrated qualifying through to this Saturday night’s Eurovision Song Contest final. This year’s Eurovision will be held in Kyiv, Ukraine, at the International Exhibition Centre IEC.

Demy (representing Greece) and Hovig (representing Cyprus) made it to the Top 10 qualifying songs after enduring a very competitive semi-final phase. The semi-final rankings will not be announced publicly until after this weekend’s Eurovision final, which maximises fans’ suspense.

It is a result which spelt the Greek’s return to the contest’s final after last year’s very early exit. It’s a solid come-back, for this country who’s always qualified except that minor-blip, which we can now begin to erase from our memories.

Demy looked absolutely stunning in her pale outfit as she performed her song ‘This is love’. It’s a progressively up-tempo track which is catchy and radio-friendly. The track was composed by Eurovision veteran Dimitris Kontopoulos, with creative staging by Fokas Evangelinos, the Greek’s dynamic Eurovision team.

The 25-year-old Greek pop singer seemed to enjoy her time on the stage, joined by her dancers Iasonas Mandilas and Paris Paraskevadis-Planets. She was also accompanied by off-stage backing-vocalists Erasmia Markidi, Evgenia Liakou, and Marcus Giakoumoglou. For those who missed it, we can confirm it was a very slick and well rehearsed performance.

Cypriot singer Hovig also celebrated a successful night. His performance involved an excellent staging concept which complimented his song greatly. He performed a modern radio-friendly track with electronic beats, written by Thomas G:Son, a well-known Swedish composer and producer in Eurovision circles.

28-years-old Hovig, a Cypriot artist of Armenian heritage, shows he was proud to have this chance to fly the Cypriot flag. The Cypriot broadcaster internally selected Hovig and G:son for this year’s Cypriot song.

Hovig was vocally very solid and interacted well with his dancers Marios Charalambous and Pavlos Lazarou Kertepene. The artist seemed relaxed and sung his cool song, mastering the stage’s full width to tell us his story, about gravity.

The Cypriot artistic director Charis Savva put much effort in to make sure he nailed the performance, and clearly it worked extremely well. The Cypriot’s have pulled out all the stops to be noticed and they were.

Greece and Cyprus confirmed they will be performing second-half draw for the final, with 26 countries competing. Demy and Hovig have to wait till Thursday to find out the other qualifiers. What we know for certain is that they have earned their place next to the big 5 automatic placers: the UK, Spain, France, Germany and Italy in the final this weekend.

The Eurovision Song Contest Final airs this Saturday at 8 pm UK time; you can follow it live on BBC 1.

For those who missed the first semi final, you can catch the Top 10 qualifiers being revealed, here:

Article written by Tony Neophytou

It has been confirmed that singer Demy will represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 which will be broadcast from Kyiv, in Ukraine. A song has yet to be publicly released however reports confirm that a song will be selected shortly.

Broadcaster ERT officially confirmed internally selecting Eurovision composer Dimitris Kontopoulos and creative stage director Fokas Evangelinos who were give the job of selecting an artist; they’d chosen Demy to fly the Greek flag.

25 year old Athenian born Demy is a Greek popular artist and Greek fans and local media are already referring to them as the dynamic dream team; suggesting the country has confidence in this years competition entry.

According to an official press release which was released by ERT, Demy aka Demetra Papadea will sing three songs composed by Dimitris live on Greek television on Monday 6th March. Moreover the official music videos to each song will also be revealed on this date.

The public won’t have a chance to listen to any of the songs before that live event, which leaves fans in eager anticipation. Viewers shall be tele-voting for their favourite song through SMS and phone-calls to make sure the best song chosen very wisely.

The information we have been given on the 3 songs is as follows: choice one ‘Angels‘ is a radio-friendly pop-rock ballad with lyrics written by Demy’s siter, Romy Papadea. Choice two ‘When the morning comes around‘ is an ‘American style ballad’ by lyricist John Ballard. The third choice ‘This is love‘ is up-tempo track, jointly written by Romy Papadea and John Ballard. The tunes have already been recorded with ERT’s string Ensemble orchestra whilst the video-clips have taken the song’s creators to the Ukrainian city of Odessa.

With Dimitris and Fokas behind Demy, this year feels for like it could be a strong come-back, for Greece. Not least to try to erase last year’s very early exit.

Fokas was in fact responsible for Elena Paparizou’s ‘My number one’ winning entry in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest which was held in Kyiv. 12 years later we are back in Kyiv with Fokas (and Dimitris Kontopoulos) heading the team leaving fans with high expectations. Not to mention that Eurovision followers are hoping Kyiv itself is a lucky city for Greece as our only ever win happened there.

Demy is signed to the Panik records family; she won Best New Artist in 2012’s Mad Music Awards. Her hits have included Poses xiliades kalokairia, Tha meineis feugontas, Nothing better, O hlios featuring Alex Leon & Epsilon, Mono mprosta, I zoi, H alitheia moiazei psema, Kratise me and Emeis.

Demy is currently appearing in the musical Mamma Mia! alongside Despina Vandi. She also starred in Fame The Musical, Priscilla, The Sound of Music, and Addams Family.

The Greek entrant will compete in the Eurovision Song Contest’s first semi final, which will air on Tuesday 9th May, televised live on BBC 4, advancing hopefully to the Eurovision Final on Saturday 13th May 2017.

Article written by Tony Neophytou