London Greek Radio

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 Greek government formally submitted a request on Thursday for a six-month extension of the country’s EU loan programme in a last-ditch attempt to break the deadlock with its creditors and partners in the euro zone area. However, the biggest creditor, Germany, has rejected Greece’s application, arguing that it doesn’t represent “a substantial proposal for a solution”. A development that has substantially lowered expectations for an agreement to be reached in tomorrow’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers.

Read below the text of the letter sent by Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis to his Dutch counterpart Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, requesting an extension of the debt stricken country’s current aid programme.

The letter was seen by Reuters on Thursday:

“Athens, February 18, 2015

Dear President of the Eurogroup,

Over the last five years, the people of Greece have exerted remarkable efforts in economic adjustment. The new government is committed to a broader and deeper reform process aimed at durably improving growth and employment prospects, achieving debt sustainability and financial stability, enhancing social fairness and mitigating the significant social cost of the ongoing crisis.

The Greek authorities recognise that the procedures agreed by the previous governments were interrupted by the recent presidential and general elections and that, as a result, several of the technical arrangements have been invalidated. The Greek authorities honour Greece’s financial obligations to all its creditors as well as state our intention to cooperate with our partners in order to avert technical impediments in the context of the Master Facility Agreement which we recognise as binding vis-a-vis its financial and procedural content.

In this context, the Greek authorities are now applying for the extension of the Master Financial Assistance Facility Agreement for a period of six months from its termination during which period we shall proceed jointly, and making best use of given flexibility in the current arrangement, toward its successful conclusion and review on the basis of the proposals of, on the one hand, the Greek government and, on the other, the institutions.

The purpose of the requested six-month extension of the Agreement’s duration is:

(a) To agree the mutually acceptable financial and administrative terms the implementation of which, in collaboration with the institutions, will stabilise Greece’s fiscal position, attain appropriate primary fiscal surpluses, guarantee debt stability and assist in the attainment of fiscal targets for 2015 that take into account the present economic situation.

(b) To ensure, working closely with our European and international partners, that any new measures be fully funded while refraining from unilateral action that would undermine the fiscal targets, economic recovery and financial stability.

(c) To allow the European Central Bank to re-introduce the waiver in accordance with its procedures and regulations.

(d) To extend the availability of the EFSF bonds held by the HFSF for the duration of the Agreement.

(e) To commence work between the technical teams on a possible new Contract for Recovery and Growth that the Greek authorities envisage between Greece, Europe and the International Monetary Fund which could follow the current Agreement.

(f) To agree on supervision under the EU and ECB framework and, in the same spirit, with the International Monetary Fund for the duration of the extended Agreement.

(G) To discuss means of enacting the November 2012 Eurogroup decision regarding possible further debt measures and assistance for implementation after the completion of the extended Agreement and as part of the follow-up Contract.

With the above in mind, the Greek government expresses its determination to cooperate closely with the European Union’s institutions and with the International Monetary Fund in order: (a) to attain fiscal and financial stability and (b) to enable the Greek government to introduce the substantive, far-reaching reforms that are needed to restore the living standards of millions of Greek citizens through sustainable economic growth, gainful employment and social cohesion.

Sincerely,

Yanis Varoufakis

Minister of Finance

Hellenic Republic”

The roll call vote for a new President of the Republic took place in Parliament on Wednesday and as expected, the government-sponsored candidate Prokopis Pavlopoulos (pictured) was elected with an overwhelming majority.

The new President received 233 votes (from SYRIZA, the Independent Greeks and New Democracy), while the River and PASOK-nominated candidate Nikos Alivizatos received 30 votes and 32 MPs (KKE and Golden Dawn) decided to abstain.

Of the 300 MPs only 295 voted, as SYRIZA’s Yannis Michelogiannakis and Anna Gaitani and from New Democracy Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Alexandros Kontos and Savvas Anastasiadis were absent.

After the election, Mr. Alivizatos congratulated the new President and wishing him well in his new role. Mr. Alivizatos also expressed the hope that the new President will be a guarantor of democratic normalcy and not a passive observer of political developments.

The new President commented that the highest honor has turned into the greatest duty and stressed the four principles of the Presidential oath; strict adherence to the Constitutions, defending national sovereignty, protecting the vulnerable and the public interest. Mr. Pavlopoulos argued that “we are struggling with the other European people not just for us, but for Europe itself”.

The President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker and the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Anastasiades held a friendly and fruitful meeting and reviewed different issues on the agenda of the informal European Council, which takes place here today.

President Anastasiades (L)- Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker

They discussed the economic situation in Europe and in Cyprus.

President Anastasiades referred to the efforts made by Cyprus in the context of the Economic Adjustment Programme and they both agreed on the need to continue with the reform momentum.

They agreed that the Eurozone must continue to be based on solidarity in return for solidity.

They also discussed the Cyprus settlement process and Juncker expressed his support to the negotiations that should take place in a conducive environment. Both Presidents share the same vision for a reunited Cyprus.

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.

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.