Greece in the Eurovision 2008 Song Contest

Eurovision song Contest 2008: Greece

Another Eurovision song contest belongs to the history. The 53th Eurovision contest in Belgrade finished tonight Saturday the 24th of May 2008 and the winner is Russia followed by Ukraine in the second place and Greece in the third. For another time, as usual, we show the geopolitical alliances in the voting, resulting good songs and singers like Andy Abrahams (UK) to sunk in the last places. Well this is Eurovision a fun party with its pros and cons, after all we enjoyed the show in a cafeteria by the beach on a Greek island with an international European clientele all together a big company, laughing, gossiping, applauding, booing and drinking under an amazing moonshine, what else do we need more. See you next year in St Petersburg from Russia with love!!!. In my oppinion the hit of this sumer beach parties and night clubs it will be the Spanish song "Baila el Chiki chiki" Enjoy!!!!



THE WINNER OF EUROVISION 2008

Dima Bilan 'Believe'



SOME OF THE REALLY GOOD SONGS OF EUROVISION 2008

Andy Abraham "Even if"

Thurday 22 of May 2008 update: Eurovision 2008 second semi-finals .Glamour, fun, songs, fireworks, was the main theme of the first semi finals, semi finals part two incorporated all of the above and more. Spice girls imitations, Pirates of the Baltic (not with Johnny Depp) ,Flambè DJ consoles, exterminators with the famous Hasta La Vista (Amigo or Eurovision?) and many other amusements, well after a couple of hours of a musical extravaganza with short intervals of people playing basket ball, women trying new shoes, girls playing hopscotch and others doing meaningless stuf, finally the people vote and the finalist were: Ukraine, Albania, Croatia, Denmark, Turkey, Georgia, Iceland, Sweden, Latvia, Portugal. Now lets wait and see who will be the the new big star of the Eurovision 2008 in Serbia. Stay tuned for the great fun this Saturday......

Tuesday 20 of May 2008 update: Eurovision 2008 first semi-finals. Well, I can't say that this year Eurovision didn't went over its limits. We show almost everything that a good circus can offer, clowns, dancers, acrobats, Gonzo from the Muppet show, Pinocchio with glasses, dancing angels, fireworks, brides doing their washing, wild warriors from the north, robocops, athletics, ice scatting etc. All was there except the cannonball man, the woman with beard, the dancing elephants and Lions. After all that is what we pay for a couple of hours of fun. The 10 finalist of this round out of the 19 where, Greece , Russia, Romania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Norway, Azerbaijan , Israel, Armenia, Finland and Poland.

KALOMIRA AND THE GREEK SONG My secret combination:

update 28 February 2008:
The song of Kalomira Saranti "'Secret Combination" will represent Greece in Belgrade Serbia for the 2008 Eurovision contest, the song was elected by a "Jury Comity" composed by president Mimis Plessas (one of the greatest modern Greek music composers and other known and unknown persons of the Greek music scene) that gave 40% of the votes and by audients who gave a 60% of the votes during a Greek national television "super show" in the Athens Arena hall last Wednesday. The show was presented by some 'new names' in the Greek show business namely the Maggira sisters, the show had guests from Cyprus (Evdokia Kladi with the Cyprus song for the Eurovision 2008 "Femme Fatal") and representatives from Azerbaijan and Slovenia. The audients voted by land phone and SMS.


The 3 candidates of Greece for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade Serbia was: Kostas Martakis (never heard of him, only just now after his election as candidate from ERT)with the song 'Always and forever' (always and forever.. the same prescription.... with attractive blue eyes but without the dynamic on-stage presentation of Sakis Rouvas, one of the best singers that Greece has sent to the contest in the last years), Kalomoira or Kalomira Saranti a Greek American singer and former reality show celebrity,with the song 'Secret Combination'(the usual combination to my opinion....a stew with ethnic, pop, Britney Spears, salt, pepper etc...) and finally Chrispa (real name Chrisanthi Pagona) another recent Greek pop star (never heard of her either)with the song A chance to love.
By the way the songs of Martakis and Kalomira have been leaked on the internet.
The final competition among the above 3 "Greek pop stars" will be held by the end of February on a special TV show of the National Greek Television.
Oh I can't wait for the fun, and this year I am going to watch it again from BBC because I love the way Terry Wogan satirises that sitcom event every year.
(Edited by George a former Greek Rock Musician)

Last March Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest was represented from the young Greek Cypriot singer Sarbel (he was born in London) with the song "Geia sou Maria" .The song was voted among the other 2 songs "No Madona" of Dantis and Tamta's "With Love" in a show of the Greek television ERT.
At the moment we don't know yet who will represend Greece in the 2008 Eurovision song contest in Serbia. I hope this time like the 2 last years the candidate will be as good as Helena Paparizou and Sarbel.

But anyway as a foreigner in Greece my experience and humble opinion of this contest is.....it's a bit of a joke! In England people may watch it, enjoying and laughing at the irony and outright sarcasm of Terry Wogan the Irish presenter and nobody takes it seriously. Some people even throw parties where the guests can enjoy laughing at it together. In fact, the year that England achieved 'nil points' was, for the English followers, the biggest joke and an achievement in itself. There was no national shame or embarrassment in it - only, possibly, for the couple who performed it! Another country that really enjoys Eurovision with humor is Germany with a great party in Hamburg's Reeperbahn.

This year I am in Greece and I see a completely different attitude to the competition. Greek people, generally, take the contest a bit more seriously than I have ever seen in England - save perhaps for the very early days when it was won by Cliff Richard , Lulu and Sandy Shaw. This year, in Greece, the lead up to it begins early and people follow it zealously - the picking of the song that will represent their country, the shows where the songs are heard, and the final show where the song is chosen - are all done in deadly earnest. Unlike in England, they fail to fully appreciate that the show is no longer anything to do with the music but much more to do with forming or reinforcing political and economic interests.I have to admite though that the Eurovision song (and Dancing....)contest gave some good songs and introduced for the first time great performers like Abba and hits like Puppet on A string ,Congatulations ,Volare ,Wateloo ,Save your kisses for me and others.

It occurs to me that this contest reflects the hierarchical nature of the members of the European Union. Those countries firmly established for decades as 'in Europe' are not threatened by the contest because they feel no need to prove themselves either as hosts, countries or musicians. In fact with regard to music, some of them they send floor show displays of 'non-music'. On the other hand, the new European countries, in particular those in the east of the continent, see the contest as something they must win and go all out to try and achieve this. Greece, who are not the newest member, takes the Eurovision contest less serious then sports like football and basket where Greece has achieve a lot ,like the 2004 Olympics ,winning the European football championship in 2004 ,being second in 2006 FIBA World Championship in basket ball,and of cource winner of the Eurovision song contest 2006 with Helena Paparizou.
Last year finalist of Eurovision 2007h was Serbia with Marija Serifovic.Greece got the 7th pllace with Sarbel singing the song Geia sou Maria.

By the way in Greece we have great pop and rock music. unlike the usual songs we hear every year in that song contest. Here are some of the most popular Greek musicians who will never think of going to perform in the EUROSVISION......

SOKRATES THE BEST GREEK ROCK GROUP