London Greek Radio

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.

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!

Article written by Tony Neophytou

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. 

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.

Article written by Tony Neophytou

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: 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: 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.

 

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.

Article written by Malvina

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 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.

Article written by Tony Neophytou