Those Greek national finals sound kinda fun. A few years back they hosted one in a shopping mall, with escalators serving as a stage backdrop, which tells us the Greek must have been pretty low on cash, which is hardly a surprise, but still impressively solution oriented. This year however, they didn’t even get around to organizing a national final before ALL ENTRIES but one ended up being disqualified. Including two entries being disqualified for not sounding Greek enough. A couple of others were kicked out when they failed to cough up the dosh needed to participate in the international final, and TA-DA, Yianna Terzi won on walkover. We can only conclude she must be very GREEK and very RICH, so good to have that all sorted.
We haven’t been particularly crazy about the Greek entries for a few years running now and arguably the rest of Europe agrees with us. Their perfect qualification streak broke in Stockholm and we’ve had to suffer through wailing women, sulky ballads, 90s eurotrash and whatnot. Not even clever use of a trampoline on stage could save them from a rather dismal result. We can only imagine the upset and frustration in the Greek broadcaster’s HQ, they used to be so good at it, and suddenly they sucked.
Clearly a long and hard rethink was duly overdue, but we commend the Greek for still wanting to be Greek in Eurovision. There would be much greater variation in the line-up and a lot fewer Swedes involved if more countries followed their example. We are not Eurovision purists and reactionaries screaming for the orchestra to be reintroduced and forcing back the national language rule, but it sure is boring when it sounds like most of the entries have been churned out from the same composer booth camp in Eskilstuna.
And with the rather unconventional selection of Yianna Terzi the future suddenly looks a whole lot brighter. Because Oniro Mou is a solid entry preformed by a seasoned artist, bringing Greece back into form and contention. We found it to be a bit boring at first, but it has grown on us, and it’s perfectly tailored for being performed live on a big stage. This number is packed with drama and emotions, there are ethnic instruments and it’s sung by a strong vocalist. In short it has the whole package and it will do well. Perhaps not podium material, it’s a tad too introvert and inaccessible, but we reckon a finish on the left hand side of the scoreboard will be a long-awaited step in the right direction.
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