London Greek Radio

Cypriot Eurovision representatives Minus One wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2016!

The 2016 Cypriot Eurovision hopefuls Minus One have recorded a special Christmas greeting message, wishing you the compliments of the season to you all the supporters of the Cyprus Eurovision Song Contest entry!

The Cypriot boys made up of vocalist, Francois Micheletto, will be assisted by fellow band members Harrys Pari, Costantinos Amerikanos, Antonis Loizides and Chris J, who will be collectively playing the drums and guitar.

The Cypriot entry will be drawn in one of the semi-finals on 10th and 14th May ultimately leading (should they manage to beat qualifying) to the Final on 16th May, at Ericsson Globe in Stockholm.

Check out Minus One on the festive road trip…

Monica Michael •

Monica Michael entered through as the X Factor wild card on Saturday after not making the cut for Mentor, Rita Ora’s initial selection.

The 25 year old of Cypriot roots was on the show previously in 2014, only to be rejected by Cheryl Fernandez Versini. Despite Monica singing a touching rendition of ‘My Angel’, she thought she had suffered a similar setback this year, as fellow contestants Louisa Johnson, Lauren Murray and Kiera Weathers, were picked ahead of her by mentor Rita Ora, as part of the 12 remaining contestants for the live shows.

The news of Monica’s comeback broke out on the Xtra Factor, which is the spin-off show for the X-factor where judge Simon Cowell expressed his desire to bring Monica back to the show.

He Said: ‘I just thought I have to bring her back, the show would not be the same without her’.

Monica, who first performed at a number of LGR events once posted a video of herself dancing to a Tsifteteli song by Nikos Kourkoulis called ‘Kapou Kapou’ which obviously gets our vote!

After rejecting Monica the chance to advance to the live shows in 2014, Cheryl Fernandez Versini was delighted for the North Londoner and scrubbed the tag ‘Wildcard’ off her name: ‘I want to get rid of the word Wildcard. For me, you are a complete competitor. ‘You were my biggest mistake from last year and the timing for you, is now’.

The performance at the Judges houses reduced guest judge Meghan Trainor to tears, and mentor Rita Ora was relieved that her contestant would be getting a second chance in the competition.

She said: ‘I should have put her through in my final 3. She is a ‘rough diamond’. ‘I could not sleep Sunday night thinking about if I could convince the other judges of giving her a wildcard’.

The Cypriot, who is clearly a favourite of the judges, seems to have made an emotional connection with judges and fans alike. The boy’s Mentor Nick Grimshaw claims to have been a fan of Monica from the 2014 series of the show. ‘I am so happy you’re back, you’re a serious contender for this show which is really annoying for me because you’re not in my category’.

Her re-introduction to the live shows will no doubt pose a threat to show favourites Louisa Johnson, Che Chesterman and 4th Impact. All at LGR will be backing her involvement in the competition from here-on-in and whatever happens, she will be seen as a winner.

Calling all Greek music lovers. Alekos Zazopoulos has a new official audio release; a song titled Aharistia.

Stop everything and have a listen, right here:

Unloved

Tamta goes American Horror Story with her new video and we absolutely love it!

The story begins inside the dark filthy rooms of a hospital where Tamta is using young males as guinea pigs to test her poison.

The singer chose a dramatic vintage look with pin curls and a bold berry-red lipstick to recreate the black-widow look. She shows off her fit figure with revealing beige lingerie and she seems determined to kill all these helpless men in order to discover  the secret for the elixir of eternal love.

The video is directed by Apollonas Papatheoharis and it is inspired by the famous series American Horror Story.

The second season of the American TV program was called Asylum and portrayed the tortured lives of patients inside the mental institution at the hands of doctors. The dirty brick walls and the abused male bodies exposed the inspiration for the video. The video is different and interesting and the song is expected to be a big hit in many European countries this summer.

Watch the official music video here:

Kostas Martakis

Kostas Martakis has just released his new official music video for the song ‘Pes To Nai’. After three intense days of shooting with Kostas Kapetanidis in the Ionian Island Zante, the result is magnificent.

The majority of the video was shot on the famous Navagio Beach (Shipwreck Beach). Kostas had an interview today in which he was asked about his new video. He jokingly mentioned that he got really upset when the director wanted him to stand closer to the edge of the cliff so they could get a breath-taking frame of Martakis over the shipwreck.

He also commented on his latest transition from pop to the more laiko style of his songs.

Although the Kostas confirmed that he is still going to perform pop song, he feels he needs to have a slight change in career path and that includes music style. When asked if he is anxious about this musical transition he responded with certainty that he is confident with his new path because he loves laiko as much as he loves pop.  ‘I can’t please everyone’ said the popular Greek singer in order to defend his decision. Though the song ‘Pes To Nai’ seems to be closer to the dance genre rather than laiko.

Music style aside, we couldn’t help but notice that Kostas, the Greek with the baby blue eyes, looks more handsome and radiant than ever in his latest music video.

Watch the official video to ‘Pes To Nai’ here:

Panos Kiamos has just released a new animated music video for his single, “Apo Asteri Se Asteri”. The song was already very popular on YouTube and so fans have been anticipating the video for almost a month now.

The Greek singer just finished a string of appearances in Athens and is now in Australia promoting his brand new album. His tour is expected to be very successful, since Panos has worked hard this year to create and promote his new album.

Yannis Papadakos, the director, chose a different and unique way to orchestrate his latest music video starting with a close up frame of Panos Kiamos singing and then introducing us to the singer’s animated counterpart.

The drawings are of an altered reality far away on another planet, or star, where the trees are pink and lollipops are growing from the ground and flying is a normal phenomenon.

We love animated Kiamos, but check out the full music video here and see what you think:

Vegas

The Greek pop group Vegas performed their latest single “Apopse” last night in the semi-finals of the show ‘The voice’.

Two hours ago Vegas uploaded the new single onto their YouTube channel, making fans wonder when the music video will be available.

Melina, ZeRaw and DJ Airth, the three members of the group, have created multiple hits and dominated the Greek music industry since 2009.

The female singer of the group, who is known for her peculiar style, wore a long see-through white dress with red details, paired with long earrings and black peep-toe ankle-strap heels.

Vegas have been working very hard, reportedly rehearsing day and night as their official Facebook page reports they are now getting prepared for multiple live performances.

The creators and singers of the songs “Mi Stamatas” “Irthe I Stigmi” and “Tus Ponaei” have yet to release the official video for their new song but the fans are expecting it to be spectacular. The group has filmed high budget videos in the past; the video for the song “Akoma” was shot in the United States and included multiple scenes from the streets of New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Palm Beach and Miami.

Vegas’s modern aesthetic combined with their previous work is creating high expectations from the public but for the moment we can only enjoy the audio version of their latest song.

Here is a clip of their performance in last night’s episode of ‘The Voice’:

BBC Radio

If you are wondering what the ultimate Eurovision song of all time is, BBC radio 2 has the answer.

Helena Paparizou and her song ‘My Number One’ was voted as the all-time favourite in a BBC poll. The song competed against the other 60 winners of the competition and Paparizou succeed, taking first place once again.

10 years after its release ‘My Number One’, the song that took Europe by storm in 2005, proved to be the most popular of all the Eurovision songs ever.

Abba’s ‘Waterloo’ landed second despite Abba’s still very active fan base.

BBC Radio 2 noted: “This was Greece’s first ever victory in the competition back in 2005 and it actually led to mass celebrations on the streets of Athens. After the show, nationals descended on the streets to wave their flags and sing her song. The folk-dance love song then went on to gain top 40 chart positions in countries across the world, was later covered by a heavy metal band and was even featured as a soundtrack in a karaoke video game.”

Helena, singer and songwriter, was a member of the group Antique which became extremely popular after their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2001 with the half-Greek half-English song ‘Die for you’.

As of late, Paparizou has released her new song ‘Angel’ and once again her fans are responding enthusiastically, with more than 20 thousand views already, the song is promising to be another great hit.

Listen to Helena’s latest hit here:

Naya

The Greek independent record label The Spicy Effect has uploaded the song ‘Min Akous Kanenan’ from a new upcoming artist named Naya. The greek media has reported that Naya is already a well-known dancer and some claim that she might be one of the top dancers in Greece.

The song ‘Min Akous Kanenan’ is written by Gavriil Gavriilidis and a music video will be available very soon.

Yiannis Papadakos, who has directed videos for Sakis Rouvas , Kostas Martakis and Onirama, is going to be the director for this new artist’s video.

The label that signed Despina Vandi, Thanos Petrelis, Mater Tempo, Lena Papadopoulou and Eleni Hatzidou is now promoting this new star and the YouTube comment feedback is rather enthusiastic.

Efforts from the label to provide the best songwriter and director signifies that Naya is here to stay. The singer who has been an enigmatic figure since she was introduced to the public last May, when she appeared on the red Carpet of Madwalk 2015, has now excited fans with her first audio piece.

It is known that Phoebus, the owner of The Spicy Effect label, is always trying to find new talents and Naya just might be their next big star.

The girl with the white hair and tattoos has already attracted a lot of attention on social media and while we have to wait for her to release her first music video, the song is out and ready for public ears:

John Karayiannis secures Cyprus place in the final…

Well, it felt like a sense of nervy excitement at about 9:50pm on Thursday night and much relief too, that our Cypriot tune had in fact qualified, pleasing all of the fans…

Cyprus has made it through to the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest which is massively historic in the context of this year’s 60th mile-stone of the music event.

John Karayiannis with his heart on sleeve, showing a little of his fragile vulnerability sung his honesty, sweet melody track ‘One Thing I Should I Have Done‘, to take votes off both public and that of the professional jurors for the Top 10 qualifying spaces. It has a radio friendly feel which was only enhanced by that of John’s clear tone strong vocals to the point, you felt he believed every word or line he uttered in the three minutes of his song.

Our tune was penned by Mike Connaris, a London Cypriot song-writer, previously having brought his Top 5th in 2004’s Lisa Andreas entry ‘Stronger Every Minute’ which equals our best ever result this far.

John, a 20-year-old singer from Limassol, with his black thick framed spectacles, took to Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle Arena, minimalist staging, with a lovely black and white screen affect at the song’s intro, with explosions of colour in the back-drop, as the tune climaxes to the last note.

One Thing I Should Have Done… qualifier… ticked…

John speaking after he found out his result was clearly excited and in awe of achieving fine outcome. ”We are through to the final guys!!! Wowww!! So excited and thankful for all the support I have received lately by each and every of you!! Really appreciate it!! Xxx”.

It goes without saying it’s a great feeling of elation to have our Cypriot nation in the final after a long history of mixed results, you have to go back to 2012’s Ivi Adamou ‘La La Love’ for actually the last qualifier of theirs, and it’s a strong come-back after taking one-year’s hiatus from the event in Copenhagen.

At 1am this Friday morning, the official draw gave Cyprus 11th in the final, while Greece’s Cypriot female soloist Maria-Elena Kyriakou is performing 15th, with ballad ‘One Last Breath‘ who was through in the first of semi-finals on Tuesday night.

So the finalist line-up comprises the acts by Sweden, Latvia, Norway, Azerbaijan, Slovenia, Israel, Montenegro, and Lithuania including Estonia, Serbia, Georgia, Belgium, Hungary, Albania, Romania and special guest status’s Australia.

As one of the ‘Big Five’ countries, the UK entry with Electro Velvet has gained automatic qualification to the final alongside Spain, Germany, France, Italy and current title holders Austria.

Well done to the whole Cypriot delegation for giving us something to celebrate, with Evi Papamichael and Klitos Klitou and others, working the last months for this result.

The Grand Final takes place this Saturday at 8pm, you can watch it on BBC1, with tele-voting and jury deciding where exactly each nation finishes.

For those of you who missed it, this is John Karayiannis performing ‘One Thing I Should Have Done’ for the Cyprus entry live at the 2015 Eurovision Semi-Final 2: