Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008
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| Eurovision Song Contest 2008 | |
|---|---|
| Country |  Greece |
| National preselection | |
| Preselection process | National Final 60% Tele-Voting/SMS 40% Judging panel |
| Preselection date(s) | February 27, 2008 |
| Selected entrant | Kalomoira |
| Selected song | "Secret Combination" |
| Finals performance | |
| Semi-final result | Qualified (1st, 156 points) |
| Final result | 3rd, 218 points |
Greece and ERT held a national final to choose who would represent them in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. On February 27, 2008, the Greek public along with an expert jury chose Kalomoira with "Secret Combination" as the 2008 entry. It placed first in the first semi-final and third at the Eurovision Final.
Contents |
[edit] National Final
Greece and ERT chose to do a national selection again for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 after efforts to find a big name artist for an internal selection failed. ERT originally proposed to Elli Kokkinou internally, but she declined because of her pregnancy. On December 17, 2007, ERT officially announced the participants of the national final: Kalomoira, Kostas Martakis, and Chrispa.[1][2] ERT held a press conference on February 06, 2008 to present the songs to the media, while the national final will take place on February 27, 2008 at the Athinon Arena.[3]
The National Final took place on February 27, 2008 at the Athinon Arena. The show began begin at 10PM Greek time. The artists involved in the National Final were Kalomoira, Kostas Martakis, and Chrispa. Each artist sang the song they chose in their own special way, live. The songs the artists chose, had to be submitted to ERT by January 25, 2008.[4] On February 3, 2008, Kalomoira and Kostas Martakis' songs for the national final were leaked on the web. ERT had previously stated that they would not release the songs before the press conference on February 6, 2008.[5] This is believed to have happened because ERT sent out the songs to radio stations early. On February 6, 2008, ERT held a press conference at the Athens Hilton hotel and officially revealed the songs and more details about the National Final to the media and public.[6] The winner was chosen via 60% Tele-voting/SMS Messaging and 40% internal jury. The president of the jury was Mr. Mimis Plessas, while the jury included Christos Dantis, Johnny Kalimeris, Mr Gontakas and Mr Andrikakis, as well as others. [7]
The host's of the show were the Maggira Sisters.[8]. Similar to the previous year's show, there was also entertainment in the show by international participants. This year's international participants included Rebeka Dremelj from Slovenia, Nico & Vlad Miriţă from Romania, Elnur Hüseynov and Samir Javadzadeh from Azerbaijan, and Evdokia Kadi from Cyprus. [9] Sarbel also performed Yassou Maria as well as a new song. The stage was slightly bigger this year than last year. The National Final was streamed live on Eurovision.tv, ERT's Eurovision site in 2 different stream qualities, ERT World, and NET.[7] The whole show was "Las Vegas show girl" themed.
Besides a few small faults in the program, the production ran much more smoothly than in 2007. The show lasted only about two and a half hours and ERT's broadast topped the programs aired on February 27 by 45.9% according to AGB Hellas. It is estimated that 1.9 million viewers watched the show.[10]
[edit] The Songs
[edit] Chrispa
Chrispa chose a song composed by Marios Psimopoulos with lyrics by Antonis Papas. The provisional title of the song was "SOS for Love"[11], but later changed to "A Chance to Love".[12] The song was Ethnic style, with lyrics in both Greek and English.[12] It was described as a "Dance Oriental" song. Chrispa appeared at the National Final on stage with 4 male dancers with tattoos on their chests and backs. She started the song sitting in a black chair with her dancers huddled around her. She later got up and sang, while her dancers danced in the background. Chrispa wore a white short dress, and sang her song while dancing with the male dancers.
[edit] Kostas Martakis
Kostas Martakis competed in the National Final with a song by Dimitris Kontopoulos with lyrics by Vicky Gerothodorou.[13] The song and title was "Always and Forever".[14] The song was originally presented at the ERT press conference in its original form as a pop song with a rock feel to it,[13] but for Eurovision and the National Final he decided to sing a Dance Version of "Always and Forever".[15] For his stage show, Martakis enlisted the help of one of Rouvas' dancer from Eurovision, Irina, who is Fokas Evagelino's protege. For his stage show, he appeared in all white with 2 female and 2 male dancers and back up singers also in white. He started off his song sitting down, later getting up and dancing. During the middle part of his song, he jumps up on a platform, and a big prop opens up on stage like the letter V with him in the middle. The lights then go on him with smoke machines on during a disco-break in his song while his dancers start singing as backing vocals in microphones facing him.
[edit] Kalomoira
Kalomoira and her record company Heaven Music picked her entry out of many songs sent in. [16] Kalomoira picked an R&B style upbeat song with a Greek feel composed by Konstantinos Pantzis with lyrics by Poseidonas Giannopoulos titled "Secret Combination".[17] The song had an "American production" feel to it. [18] Kalomoira appeared on stage in a short J-LO dress, accompanied by 4 male back up dancers. At the start of the show, the 4 dancers hold her up on top of themselves, while she is laying down. Later she comes down, and starts dancing with them. During the middle of the song, the 4 dancers get down in a circle and start bowing to Kalomoira while she dances in the middle. At the end of the song, the 4 dancers get in a row and take off their shirts to reveal a letter on each of them spelling LOVE with Kalomoira at the end. Kalomoira won the National Final. She came first in the televoting, and second in the jury vote according to rumors. ERT will release the figures in the next week most likely.
[edit] Result of National Final
| № | Singer | Song | Composer - Lyricist | Televoting - SMS (60%) | Jury (40%) | Total | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chrispa | "A Chance to Love" | Marios Psimopoulos - Antonis Papas | - | - | 15.9% | 3 |
| 2 | Kostas Martakis | "Always and Forever" | Dimitris Kontopoulos - Vicky Gerothodorou | - | - | 33.8% | 2 |
| 3 | Kalomoira | "Secret Combination" | Konstantinos Pantzis - Poseidonas Giannopoulou | - | - | 50.3% | 1 |
[edit] At Eurovision
Although Greece was granted a place in the 2008 final because of Sarbel's 7th place finished at the in Eurovision Song Contest 2007, due to new rules by the EBU, Greece had to compete in a Semi-final this year. This was the first time since 2004 that Greece had to participate in a Semi-final. For the 2008 contest, the EBU decided to regulate all countries except the Big 4 to pass through a Semi-final.[19] The EBU split up countries with a friendly voting history into two different semi-finals, to give a better chance for other countries to win. On Monday January 28, 2008, the EBU did a special draw which determined that Greece would be in Semi-Final 1 to be held on May 20, 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia.[20]
The Maggira Sisters were the commentators for the event while Alexis Kostalas was the Greek jury spokesperson.[6]
[edit] Semi-final
Kalomoira was scheduled to presented "Secret Combination" 19th (last) in the first semi-final on May 20, 2008. Konstantinos Pantzis, the composer, announced that there would be a few tweaks to the song for its appearance at Eurovision.[21] The changes included a new beat to the introduction and a few changes to the chorus. ERT announced that this new version would be presented to the European Broadcasting Union as the official version of the song.[22]
Kalomoira performed 19th, the last act of the night. The stage show included new choreography, as well as Victoria Halkiti and Nektarios Georgiadis as backing vocalists.[23] There was also a large book on stage that Kalomoira stepped out of when singing the lyrics "an open book". At the same moment, Kalomira changed her outfit converting it from a pink dress into a mini-silver skirt. She wore clothes exclusively by J-Lo and managed to finish first receiving 156 points.
[edit] Final
Kalomoira performed a repeat of her semi-final performance at the Eurovision Final held on May 24, 2008. She presented "Secret Combination" 21st on the night after Azerbaijan and before Spain. Having led initially in the voting, Kalomoira finished in third place behind Russia and Ukraine, receiving 218 points. She received 12 points from United Kingdom, Germany, Albania, San Marino, Cyprus and Romania. Latvia, Iceland, Portugal, Finland, Norway and Lithuania were the only countries that did not vote her in their top ten, thereby giving her no points. The Final received 93% ratings and was watched by over six million people in Greece. [24]
[edit] References
- ^ ERT announces the national final participants. Oikotimes. Retrieved on January 23, 2008
- ^ Greece: National final participants announced. ESCToday. Retrieved on January 23, 2008
- ^ ERT announes date and venue for national final. Oikotimes. Retrieved on January 23, 2008
- ^ Submission for songs due on January 25. Oikotimes. Retrieved on January 23, 2008
- ^ Two national final songs leaked on the web. Oikotimes. Retrieved on February 3, 2008
- ^ a b The press conference at the Athens Hilton hotel. Oikotimes. Retrieved on January 23, 2008
- ^ a b (UPD) The stage, the jury and one invitation for you. Oikotimes. Retrieved on February 24, 2008
- ^ The Maggira Sisters to host the national final. Oikotimes. Retrieved on January 23, 2008
- ^ (UPD) Revelations regarding the Greek national final. Oikotimes. Retrieved on February 24, 2008
- ^ High TV rates in Greece, poor televoting figures. Oikotimes. Retrieved on March 18, 2008
- ^ Chrispa to sing 'SOS For Love'; title to change. Oikotimes. Retrieved on January 23, 2008
- ^ a b Chrispa decided 'A Chance To Love'. Oikotimes. Retrieved on January 28, 2008
- ^ a b Στην τελική ευθεία ο Κώστας Μαρτάκης. MAD TV. Retrieved on January 23, 2008 (Greek)
- ^ Kostas Martakis to sing 'Always & Forever'. Oikotimes. Retrieved on January 23, 2008
- ^ Κ.Μαρτάκης: Με την dance version στον τελικό. Eurovision-Greece. Retrieved on March 21, 2008 (Greek)
- ^ Kalomira; the deadline, the songs and a party. Oikotimes. Retrieved on January 23, 2008
- ^ Η Καλομοίρα σε "secret combination". MAD TV. Retrieved on January 23, 2008 (Greek)
- ^ Greece: Kalomoira's composer exclusive. ESCToday. Retrieved on January 24, 2008
- ^ All you need to know for Monday's draw!. Oikotimes. Retrieved on January 28, 2008
- ^ THE 2008 EUROVISION DRAW LIVE'. Oikotimes. Retrieved on January 28, 2008
- ^ Η νέα έκδοση του Secret combination.(Greek) Eurovision-Greece. Retrieved on March 21, 2008.
- ^ Greece: Eurovision Version of Secret Combination.(Greek) ESCToday. Retrieved on March 23, 2008.
- ^ Kalomoira hails 3rd in EUROVISION! Well done to Greece!. London Greek Radio. Retrieved on May 26, 2008.
- ^ Kalimeris, Aris (2008-05-25). Six million Greeks watched the big final. ESCToday. Retrieved on 2008-06-10.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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