Who is Poseidonas Giannopoulos? Poseidonas is a successful Greek lyricist who has recently been greatly involved with the Eurovision Song Contest. He was the one who wrote the lyrics for Evridiki's Cypriot entry in the 2007 contest and he is in the race again this year with Kalomoira, one of the Greek finalists. Poseidonas spoke exclusively to esctoday.com about their song, Secret combination, and about himself and his career so far.
First of all tell us some things about the song. What is it about and where did you get your inspiration from?
The title of the song is Secret combination, it is entirely in English and it’s an RnB pop song. Now, I already knew and liked Kalomoira very much since she was on “Fame story 2”. I have always had a positive opinion about her and I really appreciated her as a good pop singer. Now, with Kostas we had collaborated several times in the past, we made lots of songs together and some of them became huge hits in Greece like Peggy Zina’s song Poly kala pername.There is a lot of positive energy among the three of us, Kalomoira, me and Kostas.When Kostas gave me the composition, the only thing I could have been inspired by was Kalomoira herself, her personality, her style and her positive energy. I think I wrote the lyrics that fit her 100% and I hope that you will have the same opinion after you listen to the song.
Have you written lyrics for Kalomoira before?
For Kalomoira this is the first time.
Have you participated again in the Eurovision Song Contest?
Iwrotelyrics for the Eurovision Song Contest again last year.By coincidence or just luck, I wrote the lyrics of two songs last year. In the Greek final with Tamta’s song With love composed by Nikos Terzis and with Cyprus’s Eurovision entry Comme ci, comme ca by Evridiki and Dimitris Korgialas. I can say that my double participation it was by luck because when I wrote the lyrics for Tamta, I didn’t know that Evridiki and Dimitris had already decided that will represent Cyprus with the song that I wrote the lyrics one year ago. It was a coincidence that I was the official lyricist for Cyprus and candidate lyricist for Greece.
Do you have any favorite Greek Eurovision entry so far?
There are a lot of good songs. If I have to say only one it is obvious that I will say My number one with Helena Paparizou. That was a great song and I was sure that it could win the contest. I could understand the energy of the song. But I have to say another favorite Greek entry, a very important one, Greece 1992, Cleopatra with the song Olou tou kosmou I elpida. I think it is one of the best Greek entries ever that gave us the 5th position after 15 years with the song Mathema solfege.
Howlong have you beena lyricist?
Look, I am more a Radio producer than a lyricist. This has been my job for the last 20 years. I have been writing lyrics for 15 years and professionally for the last 10-11 years.The first song of mine to be released wasby Stelios Rokkos titled Me ena adespoto tragoudi (With a stray song)that was includedin his album Aggeloi imaste oloi.
Have you thought of the stage presentation of the song?
First of all I have the experience of the Eurovision Song Contest as a spectator because I have been a fan of this contest for 30 years. I have also the experience from last year and when I wrote the lyrics Idecided to includesome words andphrases that will make the work of the choreographer or the producer easier. So, I’ve imcuded some things in the song that will give the choreographer the possibility to “play” with the lyrics.
You know the other 2 contestants, Chryspa and Kostas Martakis. Do you think that will be an easy competition?
I think that no contest is easy for anybody. The history of the contests of all kinds whether it’s a music contest or a movie contest like the Oscars, has proven that there is always somewhere the beauty of surprise, the beauty of the outsider.
Last year you wrote lyrics in French and this year in English. You have also written lyrics in Greek, which is easier or harder?
French is my mother tongue because I was born in Belgium so it is easy for me to write lyrics in French. Before Tamta’s song With love I was thinking that the hardest thing is to write lyrics in English but I was wrong. Greek lyrics are the hardest ones because in the Greek language the words are longer and have more syllables.
Has the fact that the song is an RnB pop one made your work harder?
Absolutely. This is because in the RnB songs the words are goingfaster and we have afaster flow of the lines. You have to write more things and it’s a phrase after phrase thing. The only thing is that particulary this song didn’t make my writing harder because I liked it very much.
What have your friends told you about the song?
Only my close friends have listened to it and everybody liked it. They know that I am always after sincerity and if there is something wrong I want to be told about it but the song was liked very much.
Esctoday would like to thank Poseidonas for this exclusive interview and wish him good luck in the Greek final.
