ERT, the Greek broadcaster, held a press conference to present for the first time the three songs that will compete in Greece's national final on February 28th. Sarbel, Tamta and Christos Dantis were all present to meet the press and answer our questions.
Also present were Mr George Chouliaras, ERT Commissioned Board Member, Maria Bakodimou and Fotis Sergoulopoulos the presenters of the final. Mr Chouliaras said that ERT is preparing a series of short TV programmes as well as four longer ones to present all the Eurovision entries to the Greek public.
Each of the three finalists is responsible for the presentation of their own song. The staging on the night of the final is entirely up to them. Sarbel is already working on the choreography, he will be accompanied on stage by four female dancers and he will dance himself. Tamta will be directed by Nikos Soulis, a veteran director, responsible for many a successful video clips and shows. Christos Dantis' plans have not been finalised yet.
During the press conference, the issue of the language of the participating songs was brought up once more as apart from a few verses in Greek in Tamta's song With love, all the rest are in English. Christos Dantis said that he feels that a song misses out if it's lyrics are not understood by the majority of the voters.
The three songs that will be competing for the golden ticket to the next Eurovision song Contest in Helsinki are the following in the order they were drawn to be performed during the Greek Final:
Sarbel – Yassou Maria
Lyrics: Mack
Music: Marcus Englof, Alex Papaconstantinou
UPDATE Click here to listen to Yassou Maria and read the lyrics, courtesy of ERT.
Tamta – With love
Lyrics: Poseidonas Yiannopoulos
Music: Nikos Terzis
UPDATE Click here to listen to With love and read the lyrics, courtesy of ERT.
Christos Dantis- No Madonna
Lyrics: Christos Dantis-Natalia Germanou
Music: Christos Dantis
UPDATE Click here to listen to No Madonna and read the lyrics, courtesy of ERT.
A great surprise for us all was the presence of a YLE reporter and crew who were working on a special that will be presented during the Finnish final on 17th of February. Kirsi Crowley from YLE conducted interviews with three Greek finalists as well as Ms Fotini Yannoulatou, Director of ERT's Public Relations Department. She was particularly interested to know about the aftermath of hosting a Eurovision Song Contest, it seems the Fins leave nothing to chance! Esctoday.com on the spot editor, Stella Floras, was interviewed on the subject.
Esctoday.com spoke with all three finalists as well as with Nikos Terzis, the composer of With Love.
Click here to read the interviews in our Specials section.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoKg9m1dsIk
