Greece named 18-year-old Stefania Liberakakis as the 2021 Greek artist at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam in The Netherlands.
The Greek broadcaster ERT announced Stefania at Eurovision’s Second Semi-Final, at Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena, this May. She was born in Utrecht in the Netherlands to Greek parents from Sofiko Evrou in Greece.
The re-selection of Stefania should mean her chance to shine following 2020’s cancelled contest, due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Stefania’s song ‘Superg!rl’ that edition hit the buffers with the lack of Eurovision last year.
‘Last Dance’ is an 80’s slight retro up-tempo pop song, with catchy hooks, and on trend with music now. The radio friendly hit, which has entered London Greek Radio playlists.
A timely song about new starts or beginnings which are echoed in the “This ain’t our last dance” choruses, which reflects renewed sense of optimism, amid post-lockdown.
It a progressive well-built song, which initially starts slow atmospheric and then up-tempo on top of swirling hooks. Stefania dramatically drips over a cocktail of bass lines, scintillating strings and a “Ooh oh oh” refrain drives the up-beat vibes.
It shows off Stefania’s vocal range and she is a sympathetic and likeable.
The Eurovision veteran Dimitris Kontopoulos and music production ARCADE, composed and produced the tune, with lyrics by Sharon Vaughn. Teaming up with creative director Fokas Evangelinos has certainly proved fruitful, and with his reputation as the innovative stage creator, Greece has an ace up their sleeve.
The hi-tech staging has a few tricks with green screen, visual effects, which look impressive. It’s 80’s aesthetics with blues/purple neon and compliments the song’s vibes. There’s a city sky-scraper, or landscape in the backdrop.
Stefania is a strong performance artist, gives a cheeky wink to the camera and interacts with the public. She wears a cool purple catsuit, thanks to top Greek fashion designer Vrettos Vrettakos. The staging with digital invisible dancers looks pretty cool. The four dancers confirmed, as Nikos Koukakis, Marcus Giakoumoglou, Kostas Pavlopoulos, Giorgos Papadopoulos. At one point Stefania climbs the invisible stairs, the whole package, looks effective and it’s a slick, polished performance.
LGR’s Tony Neophytou said, “Stefania’s sincerity, talent, and telegenic looks are positive assets. It’s undeniably Eurovision competitive and captivating. Catchy hooks and effective staging elevates it, let’s hope the public has the appetite to lap it up”.
A well-made, music video ‘Last Dance’ with its cinematic aesthetics looks good indeed. There are a lot of ideas from Greek mythology unlike anything else and is creating a futuristic other worldly, thanks to the filmmaker Kostas Karidas. Stefania is at cross-roads in Athens at night, it’s eerily quiet, we guess, its lockdown. She leaps off a roof-top and is flying with Pegasus the winged horse, she’s carried off to the imagined world and there meets Atlas a Titan holding up the ‘universe’. All around her are dancing figures glowing in white, it’s futuristic and a dream-state, which the plot requires.
Stefania performs in the running order of 17 at slot number 4.
In 2016, Stefania represented The Netherlands at Junior Eurovision in Malta, as part of the three-piece girl group Kisses. Their upbeat song ‘Kisses and Dancin’ placed eighth in the contest.
Greece compete in the Eurovision Second Semi-Final which airs on Thursday 20th May on BBC4. The final is broadcast on Saturday 22nd May, at 8pm BST on BBC1.
London Greek Radio wishes Stefania and Greece the best of luck in the competition.
