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John Karayiannis battles in the Eurovision Semi-Final with his lovely melody track…

Tonight Cyprus competes in the second Eurovision Semi-Final to win a place in Saturday’s live Grand Final of Eurovision’s massively historic 60th at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle Arena.

John Karayiannis, a 20 year-old singer from Limassol, will fly the Cypriot flag with his melodic ballad ‘One Thing I Should Have‘. Singing, 15th, he’s performing this to a minimalist staging, which feels like it captivates really solidly well. The song’s intro is pretty ace we think, there’s all black and white screen for the first verse and chorus, with mini-explosions of colour in the back-drop itself as the tune climaxes, which is very effective.

I am sure Team JK and all of the delegation with Evi Papamichael and Klitos Klitou and so forth, will try their best to create the right sort of emotive atmosphere for his song.

Our tune was penned by Mike Connaris, a London Cypriot song-writer he’s previously brought the island Top 5th, to equal our best ever, with 2004’s Lisa Andreas ballad ‘Stronger Every Minute’ and upping the ante this dynamic duo of Mike and John will be hoping to bank on a qualifier with this good modern effort.

If you look at the statistics, a lowly 33% of all Cypriot songs actually have qualified or broke out of the semis, in the last decade, which obviously is disappointing. As Cyprus’ last qualifier was of course, 2012’s Ivi Adamou with ‘La La Love’, knowing this useful trivia it will surely make us all feel a nervy sense of excitement at 9:45pm of who’s going to make it…

Having said that, this sweet track is both strong and solid with a radio friendly feel to it, John’s sincerity/honesty and sort of fragile vulnerability, adding to his clear tone and faultless vocals, giving it much useful good to the song’s theme of regret of the one thing he should have done.

Cyprus’s hopeful aims to please Eurovision fans…

John revealed to LGR the thinking behind the staging which cultivates precisely the right mood for his story-telling way he goes about this. ”It’s a very simple ballad, and the simplicity is something that is going to be emphasised, I want to create the atmosphere that’s appealing to the viewer’s attention”.

John’s signature look is the thick framed black spectacles and he owns exactly five pairs of glasses he said, and of course his ‘look’ brings that individual touch to his visual aspect to the song.

Mike elated at his second Eurovision explained how he’s feeling up-beat about his adventure as he puts it to lgr.co.uk. About John’s musical talent, he said, ”He is such a young talent with an incredible voice – so cool and calm on stage – nothing fazes him… and if we can get the staging right, there’s no reason why Cyprus can’t be hosting ESC in 2016! Now wouldn’t that be something!”

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.

Well, Cyprus’ robust entry is our absolute favourite for tonight’s semi and there it will muscle it out with 17 countries and our tips for potential qualifiers are Sweden, Norway, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Slovenia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Israel then we have Ireland, Switzerland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Poland, San Marino, Malta, Iceland.

The second live Semi-Final, which you can watch on BBC 3 from 8pm until 10pm, has UK tele-voting plus jury deciding qualifiers, to complete the final line-up which already has Greece’s Cypriot Maria Elena Kyriakou with ‘One Last Breath’ making it in the first semi on Tuesday night.

Best of luck to John our Cypriot hopeful… Fingers crossed… qualifying, pretty please…

Greece has made it through to the Grand Final of the Eurovision song contest after Maria-Elena Kyriakou’s dynamic and at the same time emotional performance of ‘One Last breath’, a song she co-wrote with Efthyvoulos Theoharous, during last night’s first semi-final impressed the crowd attending Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle  arena and won the vote of both the TV viewers and that of the professional juries.

The 31-year old, mother of the three, Cypriot-born singer will be joined in this Saturday’s final  by nine other acts from Serbia, Armenia, Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Albania, Romania and Georgia.

Finland, Moldova, Netherlands,FYROM, Belarus and Denmark failed to qualify for the final

As one of the ‘Big Five’ countries, the UK has gained automatic qualification to the Grand Final alongside Spain, Germany, France, Italy and current title holders Austria.

Last year’s winner Conchita Wurst opened the show with a performance of ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’, a song penned by Charlie Μason, who has also written Serbia’s entry this year- Beauty Never Lies, performed by Bojana Stamenov.

The second live  semi final, which you can watch on BBC 3 again from 8pm until 10 pm, takes place on Thursday where Cyprus’  John Karayiannis will try his best to secure a place in the final with his melodic  ballad ‘One Thing I Should Have Done’.

For those of you who missed it, this is Maria Elena Kyriakou performing One Last Breath live at the 2015 Eurovision semi-final:

John Karayiannis will fly the Cypriot flag in Eurovision’s Semi-Final 2… Thursday 21st May… draw 15th…

John Karayiannis will fly the Cyprus flag at this May’s Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with his sweet melody ballad ‘One Thing I Should Have Done‘.

Mike Connaris a London Cypriot song-writer penned #Otishd and to keen fans he earns folklore status, by way of his Eurovision’s Top 5th with 2004’s Lisa Andreas ‘Stronger Every Minute’ to equal our nation’s best ever result.

The review by Tony Neophytou supports our tune with the force of a patriotic/proud fellow Cypriot in London.

John’s likeability with the useful hook in #Otishd adding to the strong vocals and clear tone, and it’s that clarity of verse makes sure we are bought into his introspective thoughts, and sold on his tune.

John reveals to LGR the live song/performance has captivating/intimate feel to a great effect on the screens, with good camera-work and lighting. “It’s a very simple ballad, and the simplicity is what we want to convey, what I want to say, is that I want to create the atmosphere that will appeal to the viewer’s attention”.

His signature look are the black thick framed spectacles and when asked exactly, how many pairs of glasses he owns, the answer was five.

He is a Cypriot born Limassol who at 20 years-old is a singer and song-writer fully realising his goal to represent his island.

JK with lovely ballad 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!”

“Winning the Cyprus Final was the highlight of my career so far. I remember the feeling of not winning the Cyprus JESC and I was really disappointed. But if I’d known then I was going to win the adult Final in a few years time… I would have soon cheered up!”

He reckons qualifying is the main goal “I want to do well in Vienna for Cyprus and get them into the Final proper. If I can achieve that… well, let’s take it from there!”

John and Mike went to Bratislava to record the final mix of #Otishd with orchestra and real guitars, adding sparkle to the track. There’s even the official Euroclub remix by Pepperoni Mohawk the dance-floor filler which speed’s up Eurovision’s buzz this month.

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.

#Otishd was to win the Cypriot’s Eurovision Song Project airing on 1st February on CyBc after a lengthy process of live audition and semi-finals chose the outright song.

Mike clearly very elated at his chance at Eurovision explained how he’s feeling up-beat about his adventure ahead he puts it to lgr.co.uk. “Having my song chosen to represent Cyprus again was awesome. I’ve tried since 2004 with different singers but had no luck, so John winning the Final at the beginning of Feb with “One thing I should have done” was amazing. I think the hardest part is over and I now believe John can actually win ESC for Cyprus. He is such a young talent with an incredible voice – so cool and calm on stage – nothing fazes him… and if we can get the staging right, there’s no reason why Cyprus can’t be hosting ESC in 2016! Now wouldn’t that be something!”

My guess it’s a potential qualifier and if we point out the constant struggle to qualify, that’s a huge feat. The sums suggest that only 33% of all Cypriot tunes qualified in recent years, but you can sense the genuine intent of the Cypriot delegation to beat the tough task at qualifying… well, fingers crossed to beef-up our island’s fortunes and the best of luck to Cyprus and John and Mike for achieving the best type of positive outcome this month.

Cyprus competes with the top 10 qualifying from semi-final two on Thursday 21st of May, you can tune in to BBC 3 to catch the event and the UK will be tele-voting at 50%, plus 50% jurors.

Cypriot entry has potentially good draw at 15th in the full line-up of 17 songs and maybe that kind of ‘late draw’ will be an advantage, to win people’s votes.

The grand final will be airing on Saturday 23rd May at the Wiener Stadthalle in host city Vienna.

Ευχαρίστησε το LGR και όλους τους ανθρώπους του για την ζέστη και χαμογελαστή υποδοχή και ζήτησε την στήριξη μας για την μεγάλη βραδιά.

Η Μαρία-Έλενα Κυριάκου και ο Ευθύβουλος Θεοχάρους βρέθηκαν στο Ελληνικό Ραδιόφωνο του Λονδίνου στα πλαίσια προώθησης της ελληνικής συμμετοχής ‘One Last Breath‘.

Η Μαρία Έλενα, γεννήθηκε και μεγάλωσε στην Λάρνακα. Δασκαλα στο επαγγελμα ειχε πάντοτε αγάπη για την μουσική και το τραγούδι.

Δήλωσε συμμετοχή στο ελληνικό ‘The Voice’ απο προτροπή του αδερφού της και τελικά κατάφερε να βγει νικήτρια.

Πλέον μένει μόνιμα στην Αθηνα και έχει την τιμή να τραγουδήσει με τα ελληνικά χρώματα στην 60η Eurovision, στη Βιέννη.

Για την σκηνή της Βιεννης δήλωσε: δεν μπορώ να αποκαλύψω τι ετοιμάζουμε, αυτο πάντως που ειναι σίγουρο ειναι ότι θα ειναι πολύ κοντά στο video clip, αλλα με πολύ αίσθηση στον στίχο και στη συγκίνηση που βγάζει το τραγούδι και η ερμηνεία. Με αυτο τον τροπο θα μπορέσουμε να το μεταδώσουμε κατάλληλα στους τηλεθεατές.

Μαρία Έλενα Κυριακου στα στούντιο του LGR…

Ευχαρίστησε το LGR και όλους τους ανθρώπους του για την ζέστη και χαμογελαστή υποδοχή και ζήτησε την στήριξη μας για την μεγάλη βραδιά.

Μαζί με την ερμηνεύτρια και τον συνθέτη βρεθηκε και η Μόνικα Παπαδάτου, που κάθε χρόνο και για λογαριασμό της Νεριτ και φέτος και για την Minos Emi αναλαμβάνει μέρος του προγραμματισμού της ελληνικής αποστολής.

Η Ελλάδα διαγωνίζεται στον πρώτο ημιτελικό Τρίτη 19 Μαΐου.

Αν όλα πάνε καλα όπως ευχόμαστε, θα έχουμε την ευκαιρία να δούμε Ελλάδα στους δεκτές μας, το Σάββατο 23 Μαΐου στον μεγάλο τελικό της Ευρώπης.

Τοτε λοιπόν θα έχουμε την ευκαιρία να ψηφίσουμε και να στηρίξουμε την ελληνική συμμετοχή στο tele-voting.

Ας στείλουμε απο τωρα, καλή επιτυχία στα παιδιά!

Cypriot Maria Elena Kyriakou with ‘One Last Breath’ will fly the Greek flag in Eurovision in Austria…

Maria Elena Kyriakou with soaring ballad ‘One Last Breath’ will go on to fly the Greek flag at the massively historic 60th Eurovision Song Contest this May. After topping the public and jury voting of the EuroSong Final airing 4th March, our female soloist’s melodic track will go on to represent Hellas, our tune, is obviously more of a slow speed feel than the bulk of their efforts recently. Tony Neophytou reviews the highlights leading up to selecting our 36th Greek song representative to date…

It’s 10 year’s since the advent of the winning ‘My Number One’ of Elena Paparizou with almost consistently unbroken Top 10’s, and it goes almost without saying the Greek nation has strong back-bone in Eurovision successes and results. 

The 31-year-old singer actually is a Cypriot born and bred in Larnaca and co-writes with Efthivoulos Theocharous and lyrics penned by Vaggelis Konstantinidis, and Evelina Tziora. Her record label Minos-EMI Universal is bidding obviously, for a decent result wise outcome which is aiming at realising qualification hopes for the team.

She is a doubtlessly very pretty and classy and is evoking much in the way of feeling in her song. The whole thing starts a little silently with emotive piano, and peppered with strings adding to the atmosphere of our tune, which steadily builds in a fairly solid progressive ballad way.

In my opinion our effort has qualifying potential to the final all the way from the first Semi-Final where it’ll be battling really hard from it’s specifically, 6th draw for a rightfully deserved place for the finale night. 

Cypriot Maria is the reigning champion of ‘The Voice’ after proving triumphant for last year’s Greek talent show format. Maria Elena also this March initiated a long run at the Posidonio which is a very popular bouzoukia in Athens, appearing with Giannis Ploutarhos and Kostas Martakis all the way to August with only the mini-‘break’ for Eurovision interceding to affect Maria’s domestic music schedule this spring.

Our hosts Mary Sinatsaki and Ntoretta Papadimitriou for two hours of the transmission live at the Enastron music hall. They sung with former entrant, Freaky Fortune ‘Rise up’ in the interval act. Celebrating, the biggest moments of Greek entry’s ever was Boys and Noise cover rendition to Antique’s ‘Die For You’ rekindling our memory banks of 2001’s Top 3 result that year. 

First act was C:Real with ‘Crash and Burn’ their lively rock-pop style entry was fusing solo bouzouki in the bridge section of the track to give that Greek touch.

Thomai Apergi and Legend, with ‘Jazz Kai Sirtaki’, all Greek language song was certainly full of happy feeling, insipidly fun, with very fast, rousing bouzouki featuring at the very climatic break-down of the up-tempo number.

Hopeful Barrice presented his Greek pop ditty  ‘Ela’ combining… lively  bouzouki Sirtaki in the break.

Shaya’s ‘Sunshine’ was a fairly up-beat effort fusing strong elements of Greek Clarinet with a very exciting bridge part of the track – just all Klarino. This reviewer, LGR dj, is adding the lively cut to the track-listing favourites of this year’s summer hits. 

Greece competes in the first Eurovision Semi-Final…

Elena Paparizou almost inevitably sung a new mix of ‘My Number One’ with all five of the competing artists relieving, in a small way, that occasion, sweeping us back exactly to the momentous win. Paparizou also covered Austria’s entry ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ and new track releases ‘Love Till It’s Over’ and ‘Aggeloi Den Klanei’.

The video footage of Bessi Agyraki, Elpida, Alex Kostala, Constantinos Christoforou and Elena Paparizou also a highlight gave our competitors really top tips for how to succeed in the song contest itself. 

Thanos Kalliris and Kings covered 1987’s ‘Stop’ number and Giorkas Lorkas with his ‘Watch My Dance’ zeimbekiko filled entry of 2011 was joined on stage by the Children’s SOS Choir for his act. The event specifically re-united boy-band One with the Cypriot’s highly-ranked Top 6th result with the ‘Gimme’ song.  

The jurors consisted of Nikos Ksanthoulis, composer and director of music at NERIT, composers Mixalis Oikonomou, Giorgos Niarxos and Tzik Nakasian, also Litsa Piskera (former public relations of ex-ERT), Reggina Kouri public relations of Mad TV, and formerly Greek act Marianna Efstatiou in 1989 and 1996 also composed the full judges that night.

Cypriot John Karayiannis proved his ballad savvy mettle with a modest performance of ‘One Thing I Should Have Done’.

Greece will compete in Semi-Final one on Tuesday 19th May, jostling for one of the Top 10 relevant qualifying places in the Final airing on Saturday 23rd May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna.

Kiamos & Stan

Yes music lovers, you heard us correctly, Stan and Panos Kiamos have joined forces to release a brand new song titled ‘Panw Sto Tzami’.

Stan confirmed the news of his collaboration with Panos Kiamos and Icon Music, through his official Facebook page. He wrote that in a few days, a brand new song from Panos Kiamos with lyrics and music by him and Icon Music will be released.

Note that the two singers are currently performing this season at Club 22 with Eleni Xantzidou.

Panos Kiamos, an established singer who is highly recognized for his previous strong collaborations with major singers in Greece, is bound to amaze the audience with the new song ‘Panw Sto Tzami’.

We are certain that their new song that will undeniably surprise and to say that we are looking forward to it, would be something of an understatement.

The ‘Eurosong 2015 – a MAD Show’ project will be a woman’s affair.  Greece, after numerous debates, joins the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria. The ‘Eurosong 2015’, a project similar to the Eurovision Song Project Cyprus, will take place in March just before the deadline set by the European Broadcasting Union to select representatives.

Since its debut in 1974, Greece has participated 36 times in the Eurovision Song Contest winning it in 2005 with the song “My number One” performed by the Greek-Swedish singer Elena Paparizou. Greece was placed third three times; in 2001 with the dynamic duo Antique and their song “Die for you”, in 2004 the showman Sakis Rouvas and his song “Shake it” and in 2008 the sweet Greek-American singer Kalomoira with “My Secret Combination”.

As an active member of the Eurovision Song Contest, Greece has hit rock bottom twice finishing in 20^th place (Greece’s worst result) in 1998 with Thalassa-Mia mikri evesthisia receiving only 12 points in total from…Cyprus. In 2014 Freaky Fortune ft. RiskyRidd and their song “Rise Up” received only 35 points finishing again in 20^th place. Ouch…

Let’s meet the possible contestants:

Shaya

Shaya: The Danish-Greek Singer originally known from the girl band Hi-5 is on the run to win the public’s vote in order to represent Greece in Vienna. Shaya is currently pursuing a solo career and has been established as a dance pop singer after the recent collaborations with the Greek DJ Mark F. Angelo. The summer hit “Far from Everything” procured global recognition and won the Best Greek Act at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards. Shaya with Mark F. Angelo were chosen as the opening act for David Guetta’s concert in Montenegro. With her attitude on stage and her stunning voice, Shaya is sure on the top of the list.

C:Real

C:Real: The popular Greek pop rock band consists of four members: Georgia Lazopoulou (Vocals), Giannis Giannikos (Lead Guitar) Takis Damaschis (Guitar) Ilias Laitsas (Drums). With no official confirmations yet, Giannis, Takis and Ilias are so far the only men contestants of the show. Up until 2002, the band’s releases were in English. With Irini Douka’s addition to the band as a lead vocalist, the band began to release songs in Greek. C:Real gained commercial and radio success since their first Greek track “Tha se thimamai”. One of the biggest successes was marked in 2006 with their fifth album which included the songs “Kathe mou Skepsi” and “Epikyndina se Thelo” which had a mix of ethnic, dance and pop rock sounds. In 2010, the band announced that the lead vocalist had decided to depart the band choosing to embark on a solo career. With a new sound, new image, new vocalist and their return to Sony Music Greece, Georgia and the boys will compete at the Eurosong 2015 for a place on Vienna’s Eurovision stage.

Thomai Apergi: She is the new voice of Greece. She is fresh, she is young…she is Thomai. Her distinctive voice brings her back once again on the Eurosong project’s stage. Thomai participated in the ‘Eurosong 2013 – A MAD Show’ with the song “One last Kiss”. Though the song was one of the favourites, she came third out of the four contestants. “You keep me Rolling” is Apergi’s recent single. The lively song has a funk character and soul influences. It takes us back in time where Apergi reminisces her childhood through her musical influences of smooth jazz, dance bossa nova, downtempo electronica and funk. This year she is back and we are sure she will astound the audience.

Thomai Apergi, Maria-Elena Kyriacou Eurovision

Maria Elena Kyriacou: Last but not least, this Greek-Cypriot singer competes for the prestigious place on the stage in Vienna. The winner of ‘The Voice of Greece’ astonished the audience with her grandeur voice. Born and raised in Cyprus, at the age of 29 Maria Elena auditioned with the song “Because of you” by Kelly Clarkson at the blind auditions of ‘The Voice of Greece’. All four coaches battled for her to join their team however she selected Despina Vandi’s team. With the same song as the blind auditions, Maria Elena was crowned the winner of contest signing a record deal with Universal Music Greece and winning everyone’s heart with her single “Dio Egoisimoi”. We expect to see a lot more from the beautiful singer.

Withdrawals: Tamta, Dionysis Schoinas.

Tamta’s withdrawal from the line up for the Eurosong 2015 led to a big disappointment. After her disinterest in participating in the upcoming Greek national final, she was replaced by Maria Elena Kyriacou. The Eurofans wanted Tamta desperately to participate as she was a hot favourite.

Dionysis Schoinas’ withdrawal is yet to be officially confirmed as well as his replacement. Rumours are swirling that Barrice will be the ultimate replacement.

Stay tuned for more updates.

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.

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.