London Greek Radio

The President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker and the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Anastasiades held a friendly and fruitful meeting and reviewed different issues on the agenda of the informal European Council, which takes place here today.

President Anastasiades (L)- Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker

They discussed the economic situation in Europe and in Cyprus.

President Anastasiades referred to the efforts made by Cyprus in the context of the Economic Adjustment Programme and they both agreed on the need to continue with the reform momentum.

They agreed that the Eurozone must continue to be based on solidarity in return for solidity.

They also discussed the Cyprus settlement process and Juncker expressed his support to the negotiations that should take place in a conducive environment. Both Presidents share the same vision for a reunited Cyprus.

The ‘Eurosong 2015 – a MAD Show’ project will be a woman’s affair.  Greece, after numerous debates, joins the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria. The ‘Eurosong 2015’, a project similar to the Eurovision Song Project Cyprus, will take place in March just before the deadline set by the European Broadcasting Union to select representatives.

Since its debut in 1974, Greece has participated 36 times in the Eurovision Song Contest winning it in 2005 with the song “My number One” performed by the Greek-Swedish singer Elena Paparizou. Greece was placed third three times; in 2001 with the dynamic duo Antique and their song “Die for you”, in 2004 the showman Sakis Rouvas and his song “Shake it” and in 2008 the sweet Greek-American singer Kalomoira with “My Secret Combination”.

As an active member of the Eurovision Song Contest, Greece has hit rock bottom twice finishing in 20^th place (Greece’s worst result) in 1998 with Thalassa-Mia mikri evesthisia receiving only 12 points in total from…Cyprus. In 2014 Freaky Fortune ft. RiskyRidd and their song “Rise Up” received only 35 points finishing again in 20^th place. Ouch…

Let’s meet the possible contestants:

Shaya

Shaya: The Danish-Greek Singer originally known from the girl band Hi-5 is on the run to win the public’s vote in order to represent Greece in Vienna. Shaya is currently pursuing a solo career and has been established as a dance pop singer after the recent collaborations with the Greek DJ Mark F. Angelo. The summer hit “Far from Everything” procured global recognition and won the Best Greek Act at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards. Shaya with Mark F. Angelo were chosen as the opening act for David Guetta’s concert in Montenegro. With her attitude on stage and her stunning voice, Shaya is sure on the top of the list.

C:Real

C:Real: The popular Greek pop rock band consists of four members: Georgia Lazopoulou (Vocals), Giannis Giannikos (Lead Guitar) Takis Damaschis (Guitar) Ilias Laitsas (Drums). With no official confirmations yet, Giannis, Takis and Ilias are so far the only men contestants of the show. Up until 2002, the band’s releases were in English. With Irini Douka’s addition to the band as a lead vocalist, the band began to release songs in Greek. C:Real gained commercial and radio success since their first Greek track “Tha se thimamai”. One of the biggest successes was marked in 2006 with their fifth album which included the songs “Kathe mou Skepsi” and “Epikyndina se Thelo” which had a mix of ethnic, dance and pop rock sounds. In 2010, the band announced that the lead vocalist had decided to depart the band choosing to embark on a solo career. With a new sound, new image, new vocalist and their return to Sony Music Greece, Georgia and the boys will compete at the Eurosong 2015 for a place on Vienna’s Eurovision stage.

Thomai Apergi: She is the new voice of Greece. She is fresh, she is young…she is Thomai. Her distinctive voice brings her back once again on the Eurosong project’s stage. Thomai participated in the ‘Eurosong 2013 – A MAD Show’ with the song “One last Kiss”. Though the song was one of the favourites, she came third out of the four contestants. “You keep me Rolling” is Apergi’s recent single. The lively song has a funk character and soul influences. It takes us back in time where Apergi reminisces her childhood through her musical influences of smooth jazz, dance bossa nova, downtempo electronica and funk. This year she is back and we are sure she will astound the audience.

Thomai Apergi, Maria-Elena Kyriacou Eurovision

Maria Elena Kyriacou: Last but not least, this Greek-Cypriot singer competes for the prestigious place on the stage in Vienna. The winner of ‘The Voice of Greece’ astonished the audience with her grandeur voice. Born and raised in Cyprus, at the age of 29 Maria Elena auditioned with the song “Because of you” by Kelly Clarkson at the blind auditions of ‘The Voice of Greece’. All four coaches battled for her to join their team however she selected Despina Vandi’s team. With the same song as the blind auditions, Maria Elena was crowned the winner of contest signing a record deal with Universal Music Greece and winning everyone’s heart with her single “Dio Egoisimoi”. We expect to see a lot more from the beautiful singer.

Withdrawals: Tamta, Dionysis Schoinas.

Tamta’s withdrawal from the line up for the Eurosong 2015 led to a big disappointment. After her disinterest in participating in the upcoming Greek national final, she was replaced by Maria Elena Kyriacou. The Eurofans wanted Tamta desperately to participate as she was a hot favourite.

Dionysis Schoinas’ withdrawal is yet to be officially confirmed as well as his replacement. Rumours are swirling that Barrice will be the ultimate replacement.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem (pictured) dismissed on Friday calls by the Greek government for an International conference that would deal with Greece’s external debt problems.

 Such a forum already exists, Mr. Dijsselbloem told reporters in a tense Press conference following a meeting with Greece’s PM and Finance Minister in Athens, and “it’s called the Eurogroup, as you know.”

 Furthermore, he strongly advised the Greek government against showing indifference to the country’s international obligations arising from its bail-out agreements.

  “Ignoring the compromises is not the road to follow,” the Eurogroup’s chief stressed.

Nicosia looks forward to Monday’s visit to Cyprus by the newly elected Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras, Government Spokesman Nikos Christodoulides has said, expressing certainty that discussions during the visit will once again prove the close long-standing cooperation between Cyprus and Greece.

According to Christodoulides, the Cyprus problem, the economy, Turkish provocations in Cyprus` Exclusive Economic Zone, as well as many other issues will be on the agenda of the talks between President Nicos Anastasiades and the Greek Premier.

The Government Spokesman said that Tsipras is expected to arrive on Monday morning. He will have a private meeting at the Presidential Palace with Anastasiades, to be followed by a meeting of the delegations of the two countries and statements to the press. Furthermore, he added, the Greek Prime Minister will have meetings with Cypriot parliamentary parties.

Asked if the two governments will further coordinate their actions with regard to the issue of EU sanctions against Russia, the government noted that during the meeting on Thursday of the EU Foreign Affairs Council “the vast majority of EU member states, even the bigger states, shared the same view as Greece and Cyprus, as regards way of approaching ans solving this problem.”

Cypriot Eurovision heat stages decide our tune…

And the winner is…

John Karayiannis… One Thing I Should Have Done…

Cyprus decides our tune with the Cypriot national final of the Eurovision Song Project airing on Sunday 1st February and all this week Cypriots have been voting for their favourite song after weekly auditions and Eurochallenge semi-finals, which started in early December. I guess if you are twitter savvy by using hash-tag #eurovisionCY this will mean something to you…

Back after a year’s hiatus, the new format had taken 55 entries to the open audition and our feature on lgr.co.uk extracted much attention from British Cypriot singers/song-writing and it goes without saying they can be proud of doing well in the quest for our tune…

Eurovision whips up our patriotic instinct and huge numbers of you support our song, so you will be pleased to know Cyprus have drawn the second semi-final on May 21st (diary ”note”) with us in the UK voting, final takes place on 23rd May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna with our entry, aims to reach that far…

This reviewer believes we have potential qualifiers and every song is really good in 2015…

Cypriot Top 6 finalists… who wins… you decide…

My brief review looks to the Top 6 finalists…

Hovig ‘Stone in a river‘ Hovig’s honest pop ballad is on point with the ”message” and refrain goes something like this… Why is everyone just a stone in the river, drifting by like a blind believer does anybody care to feel with his soul… flawless vocal and really liked the concept of what it has to say… good effort.

Doody ‘Magic‘ aka Stefanos Christoforou Pop track with catchy playful chorus and a more mid-tempo style, it’s all about magic and the last part with a little rap by Doody is good enough to break-up the chorus and show something of his identity as a young artist. He will hope to emulate his big bro Constantinos Christoforou who writes the music with lyrics by Zenon Zindilis has a long history with Cypriot Eurovision…

Panagiotis Koufogiannis ‘Without your love‘ Lovely piano introducing Panagioti he sings the ballad really well with sincerity/honesty… catchy hook is good enough on first listening and seems memorable… The final mix of the song has an epic feel with small orchestra strings… girls on cellos and violins adding to emotion and progressive way it builds… feels like a safe qualifier.

Song-writing by Nasos Lambrianides of ‘Life looks better in spring’ fame his Cyprus tune achieved qualifying in 2010…

Minus One ‘Shine‘ have good solid rock tune and credible in its genre with melody hooks and very nice verses… The usual band-set has their touch of baglamadaki in the break-down adding the Greek Cypriot feel to the tune. These boys are also called Marianne’s Wish has a large Cypriot fan-base and formed in 2009, going strong for five years… good energy on stage with lead vocal off Francois Micheletto, George Solonos (guitars, vocals), Constantinos Amerikanos (guitars, vocals) Antonis Loizides (bass), Chris Ioannides (drums)

John Karayiannis ‘One thing I should have done‘ Our Limassol artist, 21 years-old has the signature look of his black, thick-framed spectacles… simple acoustic ballad with good melody… modern… honest and understated with touch of acapella shows off John’s crisp vocal and delivers one of the moments in the song penned by Mike Connaris of Mcasso Music in Great Marlborough Street…

Mike gave Cyprus their equal best ever Top 5th result, for his song Lisa Andreas ‘Stronger Every Minute’ in 2004 writing himself into Cypriot folklore…

Nearxos Evangelou featuring with Charis Savva ‘Deila den agapo‘ Nearxos (21) and Charis (16) has intense chemistry, really nice, Greek-French mix with compatible voices and much feeling and emoting which has distinctive charm to it. In the first audition for me… sikostike i trixa mou we say in Greek or goose-bumps moment… it’s classic ballad with a modern hint with their young personality, slow start, erupts at 1 minute and 30 seconds in to Cypriot style dramatic power vocal… Nearxos is a singer/song-writer from Limassol and Charis represents Larnaca.

The judges with us for the whole process Alex Panayi, Elena Patroklou, Despina Olympiou, Tasos Tryfonos will be joined by Bruno Berberes (the former French Head of Delegation and executive producer of The Voice France) and Nicola Caligiore (of Italy’s public state broadcaster RAI). Previously in the Eurochallenge semis was two other jurors Christer Björkman and Dimitris Kontopoulos deciding our six…

The public has 50% voting also judges 50% and will go on to select our winning song…

Host is the gorgeous Antri Karantoni she was there back-stage with all of the acts’ support and has navigated the events so far…

The Eurovision Song Project Grand Final airs on Sunday 1st February at 19:30 GMT.

Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis (pictured) will visit three European Union capitals next week where he will hold talks with his counterparts on his government’s plan to renegotiate the debt stricken country’s bailout deal, according to the statement issued by his office on Thursday.

 Varoufakis begins  his tour on Monday in London where he will meet with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

Another Excuse To Party

This event is sponsored by:

Skyler Lounge, TV Magic Box, The London Landlord and Vic Smith Beds.

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Greek singer Demis Roussos, who became popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s, has died in an Athens hospital at the age of 68. The singer had been in hospital with an undisclosed illness for some time.

Roussos was well known for many songs, including Forever and Ever, Goodbye and Quand je t’aime.

He began his music career aged 17 in a band called The Idols, where he met his future Aphrodite’s Child band mates.

His band mate Vangelis paid tribute with a touching message: “Demis my friend. Nature gave you this magic voice of yours which made millions of people around the world very happy”. He continued: “As for me, I keep those special memories that we share together those early days and I wish you to be happy wherever you are”.

Greek singer Nana Mouskouri paid tribute on French radio: “He had a superb voice, he traveled in the world … he loved what he was doing”.

John Karayiannis ‘One Thing I Should Have Done’

Cyprus will select our song for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 via the route of the live Cypriot Eurovision Song Project which airs on 1st of February in Nicosia. While if you twitter savvy you are sure to have thought at using the hash-tag #EurovisionCY for news on the auditions and Eurochallenge semi-finals (on the CyBc), moreover, 55 entries will be eventually cut to six finalists and our song will be decided by public opinion and judge for who wins…

Mike Connaris, a London Cypriot song-writer has made it all the way to top 6 with his acoustic ballad he penned for Cypriot singer John Karayiannis called ‘One Thing I Should Have Done‘ featuring in a really good line-up of songs eyeing the huge prize of becoming our island’s entry which heads to Austria in the spring. 

Mike’s already written himself into Cypriot Eurovision folklore for his Top 5th result, equaling our best ever, with Lisa Andreas ‘Stronger Every Minute’ in 2004, noting he has an English mother and Cypriot father from Lekkoniko in his biography.

He unearthed male soloist John who is 21 years-old born and bred in Limassol, with the signature look of black, thick-framed spectacles and he recorded the tune at Mcasso Music in Great Marlborough Street and suiting his modern ballad style…

John Karayiannis (left), Mike Connaris (right) celebrate their success at the audition with 4 yes ”votes”

John was introduced to Mike by Christos Kyriakides, who runs a successful music school of the same name in Limassol. Mike was very impressed with John’s voice and invited him to London. After getting to know John, and working closely in the studio with him, Mike set about writing a song especially for John. The song is about regret, but with a twist because it’s not until the end of the song that the real truth comes out. It makes you realise that in a relationship you should look back with no regrets, and always be honest.

The song has a pleasant touch of acapella which is stripped-back to show us John’s crisp really strong vocal, which is adding to the honest and captivating feel to the tune. He knows precisely where the camera lens is and is performing directly to it and each of us are bought into his song and verse…

John explained to LGR his goal of flying the Cypriot flag in Eurovision with his opinion on the song… 

”As soon as Mike played me the song, I knew this was for me. I just loved the simplicity in the track and beautiful melody… and lyrics… well that was me! I would love to represent Cyprus in ESC – and I would be so proud to get the support of the Cyprus public to send me there with Mike’s beautiful song”.

”John is one the best young vocalists I have ever worked with. I’ve known him for 6 months now, and his voice just improves with every session/video. John can eclipse Lisa in Eurovision for Cyprus, I have no doubts. But the hardest task ahead is winning the Cyprus Eurovision Song Project. But he’s getting there! John has the potential to become Cyprus’s biggest music export – he will become a true international star in the future for sure”, explained Mike about his Eurovision ambitions… 

John has applied to Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was put through auditions and managed to succeed and got accepted. At 6 years-old he discovered music writes his biography, and passed Grade 8 vocals exams with a Distinction and attained 1st place in Cypriot island-wide competitions. He even tried his shot at junior Eurovision at the age of 14 and now he aims to go much further… well all the way to Vienna… the Cypriot final result will be decided by public voting at 50% and judges 50% which airs on Sunday, 1st of February at 19:30 GMT.

Cyprus competes in Eurovision Semi-Final 2 on Thursday 21st May, and the UK can vote for the 10 qualifiers… reaching Saturday night, the 23rd of May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, 8pm GMT.  

You can check out more news of John Karayiannis by heading to the official web-site at johnkarayiannis.com and facebook.com/JohnKarayiannis.Music and twitter.com/JohnKarayiannis.