This Friday morning saw the 2018 Eurovision entrant Yianna Terzi appear for the very first time live on TV, after this year’s competition and her return from Portugal. The Greek artist gave a special interview on a morning TV show, where she talked about her elimination in the semi-final and why this happened, as well as her future professional movements.

The interview was run by the Greek TV hostess Fay Skorda, who opened the discussion about Eurovision by expressing her own view on Yianna Terzi‘s stage performance, which didn’t meet the general expectations, as she said, despite a very good song, which was initially considered as one of the favourites and the singer’s wonderful voice. Following this statement, the journalist asked Yianna whether she realized it while performing.

“We were having problems during all rehearsals…”

Yianna had the following words to say; while making her self-criticism, she admitted that some mistakes were also made both by her own side and her team:

Look, a lot of people have said this and I will not say the opposite. When you are the lead artist of such a project, there are another thousand things around you, many of which I took care of myself, although I shouldn’t have concentrated so much on them. This had distracted me and I certainly made some mistakes, both myself and my team. The point is that we have encountered too many difficulties; every rehearsal was negatively surprising. So I could no longer rely on them; after each rehearsal where so many problems were arising, I was losing my trust, as well as my pleasant mood.

The show’s TV hostess stood on the issue of the problems that had came up and asked Yianna why so many problems happened to the Greek delegation. Yianna answered:

I’m not able to know why mistakes were made. I’m not able to know why the man who was in charge of the fireworks pressed the button two minutes earlier, while we had already rehearsed 50 times. I’m not able to answer, because I’m not a detective. I’m a singer. I have got no answers. Even to myself, things were happening to me in absentia.

Speaking of her bad psychology on the semi-final night, Yianna said that in the end, and following so many difficulties, she decided to leave things to luck. Here’s what she exactly said:

I went to the semi-final, after one night where everything was done wrong, the night when the national juries rated the competing entries. On the evening of the semi-final, the night you watched live, I took to the stage and I told “let things happen as they are meant to do”.

In the sequel, she was asked if this was the stage presence that she was expecting, she was categorical that it was not, while she also refered to her disappointment after watching the stand-in rehearsal that was sent 4 days before flying to Lisbon.

I understood that things would not be done as we wanted to, when I watched the stand-in rehearsal; the rehearsal that someone replaces you and the organizers show you how your performance will be looking like according to the instructions we had given months ago and were discussed many times. When I saw this video four days before I left, I realized we would not be able to do anything.

The discussion went on with the hostess asking her why she didn’t go ahead with changing her performance. She replied:

We were not supposed to change anything. Nothing from what we had asked for, was finally done. I can not answer you why other things were done to us. I have no answer for me either. If you feel wronged, like all the people, imagine how I do. ERT was trying to make meetings and discussions with the orgnanizers there. But it didn’t result to anything positive, they did not do what we said.

Yianna spoke openly about her feelings after her elimination in the first semi-final and thanked all her fans for their messages of love and support.

Neither I liked my stage presence. If I did, I would tell you how nice it was that we went and had so much fun at Eurovision. I’m not saying that. I also said that we did not have the stage presence. I didn’t hide it. I would like to close this chapter by saying a big thank you to the world because after I got back and after we did not go through to the final, everyone was sad. I received so many messages.

It does not make sense to find out who is to blame because it is not a particular fault. There was no good organization, understanding and strength. We relied too much on what the event could do for us, according to our own concept. Maybe we should have prepared the whole thing more organized from here. Nor this happened.

What’s coming next?

However, life and music career goes on for everyone… At the end of the conversation, Yianna talked about her near future plans, which include new songs that are in the making, like the English version of her Eurovision entry Oniro mou, Eternity, which was released last week:

From now on, other music is coming. At least we have the world with us. I don’t want the world to have a bitter taste, because we will move forward to new music and we will release new songs. For me, it was a blessing because when I came back to Greece I presented a song that was loved so much and I want this to continue; I want to show appreciation to the people for their love. What happened now belongs to the past. We saw a lot, we learned a lot. We’re looking forward!

Below you may watch Yianna Terzi’s interview (in Greek):

Yianna Terzi at Eurovision

The Greek national broadcaster ERT announced in February that the successful Greek artist Yianna Terzi would be flying the country’s flag at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, with the Greek-lyric song Oniro mou, penned by Yianna herself, as well as Michalis Papathanasiou, Aris Kalimeris and Dimitris Stamatiou.

Greece participated 14th at the first semi-final on 8 May, but it wasn’t among the Grand Final qualifiers. It was later revealed that the country had come 14th with a total of 81 points.

Below is Yianna performance at the first semi-final, on the stage of Altice Arena: