After the press conference organised by ERT to present the candidate entries for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, esctoday caught up with the three finalists, Sarbel, Tamta and Christos Dantis as well as Nikos Terzis, the composer of Tamta's song.

Yassou Sarbel!

Sarbel, what would you say is the one thing that�s going to make Yassou Maria stand out?

The title of the song, for one, which is called Yassou Maria. Because yassou is a word that everybody knows all over the world, yassou means hello in Greek, which everybody knows, Maria- there�s billions of Marias all over the world and in Europe and I think that is the hook of the song. It is something very Greek and very clever.
The song is very different, it has a style of its own and it�s got a bit of everything. It�s got pop, it�s got latin, it�s got that touch of ethnic, there�s a feeiling of ethnic inside it. I think it�s a whole new style within itself, this song. The lyrics are very clever as well, very Eurovision. On the whole it is a very “Eurovision” song.

Are you a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest?

Yes, yes I love it of course. I have been following it every time with pizza and beer (and seftalies*)

Do you think that the fact that you dance very well yourself would give you an edge over the other male contestant Christos Dantis?

Hmmm, it�s something I�m working on � a lot- because I do believe that in Eurovision it�s very important what you show as well, it�s not only what people hear, it�s what people see as it is a TV show. So the choreography is actually very, very good, I am working on it right now. Actually I have rehearsal, straight after this. Yes, I�m going to work a lot on my dancing, I love to dance anyway. It wil be me and 4 more female dancers on the stage on the night of the final.

What brought you to Greece in the first place?

Well, basically I�m Greek, born and bred in London but I love Greece, I love the country, I love the music, I love the people and I just decided to move here and live.

You were a smash hit immediately in Greece. One day you are here, the next boom you are a hit, especially with younger generations. Did you expect it to happen so fast?

I didn�t expect things to go as crazy as they went, it got really, really crazy at one point cause I like to take slow steps in everything I do, I like to be very careful, I �m very cautious about what I do. I�m a Taurus, so I�m actually quite down to earth, I�m not that all crazy and I like to build my career and gain experience. But everything just happened by itself.

Do you feel that your participation even in the Greek final and possibly a participation in the Eurovision final in Helsinki will help your career?

The thing is that with everything that�s going on with Eurovision right now, it has actually helped me a lot. Just the fact that I�m going to be competing on the 28th has helped me a lot, because it�s an opportunity and you know, we must always seize opportunities in life, not just leave things to pass.

*seftalies is a traditional Cypriot dish