London Greek Radio

Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem (pictured) dismissed on Friday calls by the Greek government for an International conference that would deal with Greece’s external debt problems.

 Such a forum already exists, Mr. Dijsselbloem told reporters in a tense Press conference following a meeting with Greece’s PM and Finance Minister in Athens, and “it’s called the Eurogroup, as you know.”

 Furthermore, he strongly advised the Greek government against showing indifference to the country’s international obligations arising from its bail-out agreements.

  “Ignoring the compromises is not the road to follow,” the Eurogroup’s chief stressed.

Nicosia looks forward to Monday’s visit to Cyprus by the newly elected Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras, Government Spokesman Nikos Christodoulides has said, expressing certainty that discussions during the visit will once again prove the close long-standing cooperation between Cyprus and Greece.

According to Christodoulides, the Cyprus problem, the economy, Turkish provocations in Cyprus` Exclusive Economic Zone, as well as many other issues will be on the agenda of the talks between President Nicos Anastasiades and the Greek Premier.

The Government Spokesman said that Tsipras is expected to arrive on Monday morning. He will have a private meeting at the Presidential Palace with Anastasiades, to be followed by a meeting of the delegations of the two countries and statements to the press. Furthermore, he added, the Greek Prime Minister will have meetings with Cypriot parliamentary parties.

Asked if the two governments will further coordinate their actions with regard to the issue of EU sanctions against Russia, the government noted that during the meeting on Thursday of the EU Foreign Affairs Council “the vast majority of EU member states, even the bigger states, shared the same view as Greece and Cyprus, as regards way of approaching ans solving this problem.”

Cypriot Eurovision heat stages decide our tune…

And the winner is…

John Karayiannis… One Thing I Should Have Done…

Cyprus decides our tune with the Cypriot national final of the Eurovision Song Project airing on Sunday 1st February and all this week Cypriots have been voting for their favourite song after weekly auditions and Eurochallenge semi-finals, which started in early December. I guess if you are twitter savvy by using hash-tag #eurovisionCY this will mean something to you…

Back after a year’s hiatus, the new format had taken 55 entries to the open audition and our feature on lgr.co.uk extracted much attention from British Cypriot singers/song-writing and it goes without saying they can be proud of doing well in the quest for our tune…

Eurovision whips up our patriotic instinct and huge numbers of you support our song, so you will be pleased to know Cyprus have drawn the second semi-final on May 21st (diary ”note”) with us in the UK voting, final takes place on 23rd May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna with our entry, aims to reach that far…

This reviewer believes we have potential qualifiers and every song is really good in 2015…

Cypriot Top 6 finalists… who wins… you decide…

My brief review looks to the Top 6 finalists…

Hovig ‘Stone in a river‘ Hovig’s honest pop ballad is on point with the ”message” and refrain goes something like this… Why is everyone just a stone in the river, drifting by like a blind believer does anybody care to feel with his soul… flawless vocal and really liked the concept of what it has to say… good effort.

Doody ‘Magic‘ aka Stefanos Christoforou Pop track with catchy playful chorus and a more mid-tempo style, it’s all about magic and the last part with a little rap by Doody is good enough to break-up the chorus and show something of his identity as a young artist. He will hope to emulate his big bro Constantinos Christoforou who writes the music with lyrics by Zenon Zindilis has a long history with Cypriot Eurovision…

Panagiotis Koufogiannis ‘Without your love‘ Lovely piano introducing Panagioti he sings the ballad really well with sincerity/honesty… catchy hook is good enough on first listening and seems memorable… The final mix of the song has an epic feel with small orchestra strings… girls on cellos and violins adding to emotion and progressive way it builds… feels like a safe qualifier.

Song-writing by Nasos Lambrianides of ‘Life looks better in spring’ fame his Cyprus tune achieved qualifying in 2010…

Minus One ‘Shine‘ have good solid rock tune and credible in its genre with melody hooks and very nice verses… The usual band-set has their touch of baglamadaki in the break-down adding the Greek Cypriot feel to the tune. These boys are also called Marianne’s Wish has a large Cypriot fan-base and formed in 2009, going strong for five years… good energy on stage with lead vocal off Francois Micheletto, George Solonos (guitars, vocals), Constantinos Amerikanos (guitars, vocals) Antonis Loizides (bass), Chris Ioannides (drums)

John Karayiannis ‘One thing I should have done‘ Our Limassol artist, 21 years-old has the signature look of his black, thick-framed spectacles… simple acoustic ballad with good melody… modern… honest and understated with touch of acapella shows off John’s crisp vocal and delivers one of the moments in the song penned by Mike Connaris of Mcasso Music in Great Marlborough Street…

Mike gave Cyprus their equal best ever Top 5th result, for his song Lisa Andreas ‘Stronger Every Minute’ in 2004 writing himself into Cypriot folklore…

Nearxos Evangelou featuring with Charis Savva ‘Deila den agapo‘ Nearxos (21) and Charis (16) has intense chemistry, really nice, Greek-French mix with compatible voices and much feeling and emoting which has distinctive charm to it. In the first audition for me… sikostike i trixa mou we say in Greek or goose-bumps moment… it’s classic ballad with a modern hint with their young personality, slow start, erupts at 1 minute and 30 seconds in to Cypriot style dramatic power vocal… Nearxos is a singer/song-writer from Limassol and Charis represents Larnaca.

The judges with us for the whole process Alex Panayi, Elena Patroklou, Despina Olympiou, Tasos Tryfonos will be joined by Bruno Berberes (the former French Head of Delegation and executive producer of The Voice France) and Nicola Caligiore (of Italy’s public state broadcaster RAI). Previously in the Eurochallenge semis was two other jurors Christer Björkman and Dimitris Kontopoulos deciding our six…

The public has 50% voting also judges 50% and will go on to select our winning song…

Host is the gorgeous Antri Karantoni she was there back-stage with all of the acts’ support and has navigated the events so far…

The Eurovision Song Project Grand Final airs on Sunday 1st February at 19:30 GMT.

Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis (pictured) will visit three European Union capitals next week where he will hold talks with his counterparts on his government’s plan to renegotiate the debt stricken country’s bailout deal, according to the statement issued by his office on Thursday.

 Varoufakis begins  his tour on Monday in London where he will meet with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

Another Excuse To Party

This event is sponsored by:

Skyler Lounge, TV Magic Box, The London Landlord and Vic Smith Beds.

Never been to an LGR Club Nights party before?
Take a look at some of the highlights from a past event:

To purchase tickets for this event, click here.

Greek singer Demis Roussos, who became popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s, has died in an Athens hospital at the age of 68. The singer had been in hospital with an undisclosed illness for some time.

Roussos was well known for many songs, including Forever and Ever, Goodbye and Quand je t’aime.

He began his music career aged 17 in a band called The Idols, where he met his future Aphrodite’s Child band mates.

His band mate Vangelis paid tribute with a touching message: “Demis my friend. Nature gave you this magic voice of yours which made millions of people around the world very happy”. He continued: “As for me, I keep those special memories that we share together those early days and I wish you to be happy wherever you are”.

Greek singer Nana Mouskouri paid tribute on French radio: “He had a superb voice, he traveled in the world … he loved what he was doing”.

John Karayiannis ‘One Thing I Should Have Done’

Cyprus will select our song for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 via the route of the live Cypriot Eurovision Song Project which airs on 1st of February in Nicosia. While if you twitter savvy you are sure to have thought at using the hash-tag #EurovisionCY for news on the auditions and Eurochallenge semi-finals (on the CyBc), moreover, 55 entries will be eventually cut to six finalists and our song will be decided by public opinion and judge for who wins…

Mike Connaris, a London Cypriot song-writer has made it all the way to top 6 with his acoustic ballad he penned for Cypriot singer John Karayiannis called ‘One Thing I Should Have Done‘ featuring in a really good line-up of songs eyeing the huge prize of becoming our island’s entry which heads to Austria in the spring. 

Mike’s already written himself into Cypriot Eurovision folklore for his Top 5th result, equaling our best ever, with Lisa Andreas ‘Stronger Every Minute’ in 2004, noting he has an English mother and Cypriot father from Lekkoniko in his biography.

He unearthed male soloist John who is 21 years-old born and bred in Limassol, with the signature look of black, thick-framed spectacles and he recorded the tune at Mcasso Music in Great Marlborough Street and suiting his modern ballad style…

John Karayiannis (left), Mike Connaris (right) celebrate their success at the audition with 4 yes ”votes”

John was introduced to Mike by Christos Kyriakides, who runs a successful music school of the same name in Limassol. Mike was very impressed with John’s voice and invited him to London. After getting to know John, and working closely in the studio with him, Mike set about writing a song especially for John. The song is about regret, but with a twist because it’s not until the end of the song that the real truth comes out. It makes you realise that in a relationship you should look back with no regrets, and always be honest.

The song has a pleasant touch of acapella which is stripped-back to show us John’s crisp really strong vocal, which is adding to the honest and captivating feel to the tune. He knows precisely where the camera lens is and is performing directly to it and each of us are bought into his song and verse…

John explained to LGR his goal of flying the Cypriot flag in Eurovision with his opinion on the song… 

”As soon as Mike played me the song, I knew this was for me. I just loved the simplicity in the track and beautiful melody… and lyrics… well that was me! I would love to represent Cyprus in ESC – and I would be so proud to get the support of the Cyprus public to send me there with Mike’s beautiful song”.

”John is one the best young vocalists I have ever worked with. I’ve known him for 6 months now, and his voice just improves with every session/video. John can eclipse Lisa in Eurovision for Cyprus, I have no doubts. But the hardest task ahead is winning the Cyprus Eurovision Song Project. But he’s getting there! John has the potential to become Cyprus’s biggest music export – he will become a true international star in the future for sure”, explained Mike about his Eurovision ambitions… 

John has applied to Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was put through auditions and managed to succeed and got accepted. At 6 years-old he discovered music writes his biography, and passed Grade 8 vocals exams with a Distinction and attained 1st place in Cypriot island-wide competitions. He even tried his shot at junior Eurovision at the age of 14 and now he aims to go much further… well all the way to Vienna… the Cypriot final result will be decided by public voting at 50% and judges 50% which airs on Sunday, 1st of February at 19:30 GMT.

Cyprus competes in Eurovision Semi-Final 2 on Thursday 21st May, and the UK can vote for the 10 qualifiers… reaching Saturday night, the 23rd of May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, 8pm GMT.  

You can check out more news of John Karayiannis by heading to the official web-site at johnkarayiannis.com and facebook.com/JohnKarayiannis.Music and twitter.com/JohnKarayiannis.

British High Commissioner in Cyprus Ric Todd has pointed out that the British Government supports efforts to bring the tragedy of the missing persons in Cyprus to a close, acknowledging the importance of trust and respect between the two communities in a viable Cyprus solution.

According to a press release issued by the British High Commission, Todd met on Monday with a delegation of the Community Council of the occupied village of Ashia. Speaking during the meeting, the Commissioner said that the relatives of the missing persons in Cyprus can always rely on the UK to keep raising the humanitarian issue, adding that every day he is struck by how extremely close the human ties between Cyprus and Britain are.

Furthermore he expressed the full support by Britain to the work of theCommittee on Missing Persons (CMP). Todd expressed his gratitude to the relatives of the missing of the village of Ashia, for their presentation noting that “diplomats have to remember”.

The delegation presented the HC with a petition.

According to the recent report of the UN Secretary General on the United Nations operation in Cyprus, as at 18 December 2014, the Committee’s bicommunal teams of archaeologists had exhumed the remains of 948 missing persons on both sides of the island and the remains of 564 individuals have been returned to their respective families, including 135 during the reporting period (June-December 2014). The total number of missing persons identified in 2014 now stands at 157, the highest in any given year, it is noted.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory.

Michelle Janes (Abstract Artist)

I was so pleased that one of my favorite pieces was snapped up at a recent charity event at the Cypriot Community Centre in Wood Green.

“Emerald Light” is an optimistic vision where colour rather than substance was applied to achieve what some admirers have called “exuberant”.

The finished product was adapted from the original abstract painting to create a limited edition print. I decided to print on a diasec format in order to achieve the maximum gloss effect … a face mounting process that allows photographs to be bonded directly and permanently to Acrylic sheet.

The art work was Photograhed by the World famous firm John Jones and mounted by Kay mounting.

The piece was sold to a private buyer at the annual dinner dance of a charity which raises funds for children with special needs. The Chairman of SYNDESMOS ATOMON ME EIDIKES ANANGES John Kyriakides was delighted with the sale and commented afterwards “the proceeds will help to pay for social excursions and activities which mean so much to the children .”

The dinner was attended by local dignitaries and to all accounts was a great success.