The dress rehearsals for tomorrow's Greek final took place last night at the Athinon Arena. Everything is ready and the Greek broadcaster is set to present the country as well as the European fans watching through the internet with a spectacular production, unprecedented for Greek standards.
The stage looks much more impressive than last year or than any other Greek final for that matter, with two flights of stairs, running on each side and a huge heart, , the symbol of the Eurovision Song Contest, overhanging the stage.
The show starts in spectacular Hollywood style, with feather fans, a 30 member ballet and a medley of songs such as Big spender sung in Greek by the two hostesses, Betty and Mathilde Maggira, who change innumerable costumes on stage. The three Greek contestants will perform live about an hour and a half into the show. During the show, the hostesses perform a medley of past Greek Eurovision Song Contest entries in a way never seen or heard before, both original and funny.
Sarbel, last year's representative in the Eurovision Song Contest will be performing Yassou Maria as well as the first single from his new album Echo trellathei.
Evdokia Kadi, the Cypriot representative, will be performing Femme fatale together with her four male dancers. The performance we will see today is not the one we will be seeing in Belgrade. It will be much simpler and will not include the two dress changes Evdokia will do on the Beogratska Arena stage in May.
Elnur and Samir from Azerbaijan take the stage in full angel and devil attire in their Day after day combat of good and evil. Their show is pretty much what we will see in May.
Rebeka Dremelj from Slovenia will be performing Vrah naj vzame but entirely in English today. The song goes "Heavy weather is all we had together" but this is not necessarily the version we will hear in Belgrade. Rebeka confided in us that she is in two minds regarding the language she should sing in.
Nico and Vlad Miritsa from Romania will be performing Pe o margine de lume (At the edge of the world) without their piano as the stage did not permit one but they will have their backing singers with them.
Chryspa is accompanied by an all-male ballet, in nothing but black satin trousers and large tattoos on their backs. She takes up the stage taking full advantage of the staircase in a rather pop choreography, a bit too pop maybe for the style of A chance to love. The only prop on stage is a black leather armchair, reminiscent of Paul Oscar's couch in the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest.
Kostas Martakis has prepared many surprises for his show. Props and smoke and a four-member ballet will accompany the new, upbeat dance version of Always and forever. Kostas was vocally on target throughout the rehearsal and his act is well choreographed.
Kalomoira's choreography is rather static in the center of the stage while she performs Secret combination. She starts off with some acrobatics and is accompanied by three male dancers. The overall vocal performance is typical Kalomoira but she did seem to hold back in her show.
The show starts tonight at 21.00 CET and will be broadcast live on NET and ERT World and webcast through the official ERT site as well as Eurovision.tv.
