Live: Greece decides

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by Yiorgos Kasapoglou February 28, 2007 10:12 pm 185 views

Tonight at 21:00 CET Greece decides its representative for the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest. Three singers will perform their songs hoping to be a winner. The Hellenic public broadcaster ERT is offering a webcast of the show. esctoday.com will be bringing you live coverage of the event. Watch with us one of the most unpredictable and exciting national finals.

Click HERE to watch the Greek Final

It's time for Greece to select its representative for the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest. Sarbel, Tamta and Christos Dantis will be competing to succeed Anna Vissi. The 28th Greek representative at the Eurovision Song Contest will be chosen tonight at 21:00 CET. The show, called Dynamose to! (Pump it up!), takes place at Athinon Arena, in Athens. Maria Bakodimou and Fotis Sergoulopoulos, a popular TV duo, will host the show and they are promising a spectacular show. TV viewers and a jury panel will vote through tele-vote and SMS messages, on a 50%-50% basis, and decide which song will represent Greece. Among the jury members our very own Managing Director of esctoday.com, Barry Viniker.

LIVE

The show has started. A video presentation of publicinterviews and what the Greek media report these days. The Athinon Arena packed 2500 people. The motto of tonight's show is Pump it up! The hosts announce breaking news that some people are reacting against the show at the Omonoia square. It's just a video made by them, Host Fotis Sergoulopoulos is performing at this video the song Fame, Irene Cara's hit. The party starts..

Dancers are performing It's raining men on stage. The hosts are thanking the fans of the contest – especially OGAE Greece, followed by the presentation of the jury panel. The jury consists of: composer Mimis Plessas- chairman, General Director of ERA and song writer Antonis Andrikakis, advisor to ERT President Johnny Kalimeris, composer Dimitris Kontopoulos, publisher Petros Kostopoulos, TV presenter Eleonora Meleti, music producer Konstantis Spyropoulos, actress Rea Toutountzi, OGAE Greece Chairman Antonis Karatzikos and last but not least Managing Director of esctoday.com Barry Viniker.

The hosts announce Mihai Traistariu, Romanian representative in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. He performs his entry Tornerò which was a big success in Greece. The crowd is dancing in the rhythm of Tornerò, jury members included. Mihai is saying that this is the 32nd time he's visiting Greece after the Eurovision Song Contest. Greece changed his life. Now he is performing a ballad, called Why. Its a powerful ballad which came 2nd in a former Romanian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. And now Mihai is performing his new hit Dimmi sì o no, which isofficially presented in Greece for the first time. The lyrics are half English half Italian…a successful receipe for Mihai.

Currently, there isa video presentation of former Eurovision Song Contest entries. Meanwhile the director of the show is showing us some former Greek participants among the crowd. Natasa Theodoridou, a well known singer in Greece is now performing some Greek songs of her own repertoire.

The stage of the show: more impressive than ever! Last year's host broadcaster did an amazing job. Video walls and a lot of colours are this year's elements.

The host is asking the crowd: "What are the elements of a good ballad?" A video presentation of former ballads that took part in the Eurovision Song Contest follows. Fans must be happy. We can say that the 50 years history of the contest is presented in this one night show.

And now a parody: Host Maria Bakodimou is presenting her own ballad. Wearing a long dress is singing her proposal for the Contest, called This dress makes me look fat! Jury members are giving votes for her performance. A really funny moment.

Now its time to welcome Evridiki, Cyprus' representative. Along with the composer of the song, Dimitris Korgialas, she will be performing Comme çi, comme ça.

The Hosts make public the phone numbers for the televoting:

  • Sarbel – Yassou Maria – Tel: 90 11 11 007 01 – SMS 'E 01' to 4536
  • Tamta – With love – Tel: 90 11 11 007 02 – SMS 'E 02' to 4536
  • Christos Dantis – No Madonna – Tel: 90 11 11 007 03 – SMS 'E 03' to 4536

The hosts are now presenting DJ BoBo. The Swiss representative is now performing his song Vampires are alive, for the first time on stage. Him and his dancers offered an amazing performance, a powerful choreography.

Hosts now will present once again their own proposal for the Eurovision Song Contest. Host, Fotis Sergoulopoulos, wearing a purple shirt full of christmas tree lights performs his pop proposal Hi hi baby! He added a little bit of Riverdance at the end , but the jury panel is cruel again… Low votes again by them.

A video presentation of Greek singers who participated in the past at somenational finalsis now shown. And now….. the first contestant:

  • SARBEL – YASSOU MARIA
  • Music: Marcus Englof – Alex Papaconstantinou
  • Lyrics: Μack

Sarbel, accompanied by four female dancers, seems to be quite nervous. He's dressed in leather trousers and silver top.

  • TAMTA – WITH LOVE
  • Music: Nikos Terzis
  • Lyrics: Poseidonas Giannopoulos
Tamta is wearing a minimal silver dress, there are two dancers half naked and three back up singers. Tamta performed her song quite nervous as well.
  • CHRISTOS DANTIS – NO MADONNA
  • Music: Christos Dantis
  • Lyrics: Christos Dantis – Natalia Germanou

He's dressed in black, accompanied by 5 female dancers, which currently took off their skirts! And guess what? A mediocre performance again. It will be interesting to see if there have been some technical problems for all the contestants.

Hosts are presenting Belarus' representative, Dmitry Koldun and his song Work your magic. Bulgarian representatives on stage now.

Another funny performance from the hosts of the show. Parody of a traditional Greek song. A greek artist, Yiorgos Magkas followed them.

Once again we watch a video of the three acts. The lines are open now. TV viewers and a jury panel will vote through tele-vote and SMS messages, on a 50%-50% basis, and decide which song will represent Greece.

Natasa Theodoridou is performing again some of her songs.

Whoever wins the ''golden ticket'' must work a lot on his/her performance. Tonight, noneof the three artists convinced us. Of course they were all nervous, it was a hard competition. Maybe there have been some technical problems. Nevertheless, the reactions of our readers show that performances of the artists weren't enough for them to choose their favourite.

Hosts are moving to the jury panel, asking them some questions. The hosts announce Europe's Number one in 2005. Helena Paparizou on stage! They mentioned the OGAE award that Helena Paparizou won this year and the Greek club will have to organise the event. Helena didn't vote tonight. She has a close connection with all the composers as she performed in past some songs composed by them.

Antonis Karatzikos, president of OGAE Greece gives to Helena the award that OGAE Italy had prepared for the winner, an Etruscan statue.

In a while we'll have the results. One of them is the winner. Winner once again was ERT as well. A really good show, just a little bit…long.

And the winner is… Sarbel!

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