A few reasons why Greece is being a tease this year

Needless to say the expectations went through the roof in the Good Evening Europe HQ back in February when Wiwibloggs reported that the Greek song was going to have “… strong ethnic and Balkan sounds, but not in a traditional way”. And moreover “The lyrics will refer to the refugee crisis and the financial difficulties we are facing, but the song is really happy and upbeat.” Hallelujah, what could possible go wrong? We felt like the Greek Gods had answered our countless prayers.

Hiding in our offices at work on a grey Thursday in March we were both secretly watching a live stream from Greek television waiting for the song to finally being revealed. We kid you not. It wasn’t exactly the highlight of our professional careers, we’ll tell you that much. And was it worth risking the humiliation of having a colleague or God forbid, our bosses walking in on us? Nah… Not really.

With such a build up of expectations it was hard to avoid a massive letdown when the cat was out of the bag and it turned out it wasn’t the explosion of merry go around turbo folk we were hoping it to be. Nor was it Kostas Martakis. Ever since we discovered this incredibly dishy hunk, every Greek Eurovision entry without him in it starts off with minus points, really. The band Argo seem like a bunch of nice people, but teasing us with funny traditional instruments just doesn’t cut it when we have to play the song at triple pace to stop us from falling half asleep over it.

Still, there’s a whiff of potential to trace. We might be clutching at straws here, but something tells us that Utopian Land will work well live. We like the man on the treadmill in the promo video and we’re sure the Greek broadcaster can dig up Sakis Rouvas’ treadmill from 2009 hiding in the back of a storage room somewhere. It’s probably right beside the trampoline so they might as well bring it too while they’re at it.

We simply can’t imagine the Grand Final without Greece in it. Heck, even the shouty woman with the jet fuelled wind machine last year made it through. But next year they better step it up a notch or two as their reputation as a dead cert qualifier has never been shakier.