London Greek Radio

‘Oneiro Mou’ is the song which Greece have confirmed will be their entry in this year’s Eurovision and the video was released this week.

Greek broadcaster ERT confirmed earlier this year that Yianna Terzi would fly the Greek flag at the Altice Arena for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon.

The mid-tempo modern Laiko ballad, which is sung in Greek, with strong ethnic elements and a polyphonic chorus successfully combines both a traditional orchestral sound with modern production and this makes it a catchy atmospheric song.

The melody adds a mysterious feel and an incredible Greek bridge with drums and clarinet riffs add to the song’s atmosphere.

Yianna co-wrote the lyrics and music with Aris Kalimeris, Mixalis Papathanasiou, and Dimitris Stamatiou.

The verses and chorus intriguingly are said to be an intimate conversation between ‘Greece and its people’. It’s a touching song which, through its deep lyrics, pronounces steadfast loyalty to the ‘nation’ with fervent patriotic overtones.

The video’s opening scene shows Yianna in what is a ‘fetal position’, which she says herself represents ‘the Greek territory’ or ‘motherland’.

A male, aka Dimitris Vlahos, is seen running across the mountainous terrain where he stops at a plot of soil and pushes his hand underneath and tightly grips Yianna’s arm. The Greek man does this as a way of demonstrating his strong ‘umbilical cord’ to his ethnic roots and as such, underlying the song’s patriotic credentials.

The video is directed by Sherif Francis, who captures the song’s mystical intensity and atmospheric feeling quite dramatically.

The song’s verses compliment this innate feeling, with emotive lyrics; ”Why would you want to change me and dull my blue (colour)?” and, ”No matter how much I ache, I wouldn’t strike you off the map”. This, presumably, is its subtle wink to the nation’s flag colours and territory.

Chali Jennings was asked to direct the song’s creativity and staging and we have learnt that the colours ‘blue and white’ feature heavily in the song’s live stage performance.

The Greek act comprises four backing-vocalists accompanying Yianna on stage; Giannis Lafis, Eugenia (Nia) Balafa, Irini Psihrami and Viktoria Halkiti.

Yianna was born in Thessaloniki and is the daughter of acclaimed Greek singer Paschalis Terzis.

Yianna, who will be 38 by the time of the contest in May, began her music career in 2005 and has released two albums ‘Gyrna To Klidi’ in 2006 and ‘Ase Ne Na Taxidepso’ in 2008.

She is best known for her singles ‘Tetoia Gynaika’, ‘Pou Kai Pou’, ‘O Aggelos Mou’, Gianna ft. Nevma with ‘Exw Ponesei Gi’auti’.

Yianna relocated from Greece to the United States five years ago in order to further her music career.

She released her first English-language single ‘Love Is Your Name’ under the name Yianna in 2012, which started bubbling in the underground clubs of New York City.

The first Eurovision semi-final airs on Tuesday 8th May, on BBC Four at 8 pm with Yianna performing fourteenth out of the 19 countries in the running order.

Greece’s chances of qualifying for the final were given a boost as the UK were confirmed as voters in the first semi-final phase.

The televoting/jury has a history of giving Greeks generous marks. The Eurovision Grand Final takes place on Saturday 10th May on BBC One.

London Greek Radio wish Yianna Terzi the very best of luck in the competition.

Watch the official music video to ‘Oneiro Mou’ here:

Article written by Tony Neophytou