Since last June, the rumour mill has been working overtime in regards to Greece’s Eurovision plans for 2017. Firstly, there was going to be an internal selection. Then, ERT were said to be favouring an internal selection so the budget could be spent elsewhere. Yet, by the beginning of this month we were back to the rumour of a 2-act national final consisting of Demy and Stereo Soul. Nevertheless, on 13th January ERT finally confirmed that Demy had been internally selected to represent Greece in Kyiv.
What about the song?
The Greek public will still be able to have their say this year after last year’s complete internal selection. Demy will perform three songs in a national final for the public to choose from. This final is scheduled to take place in late February or early March. ERT’s official press release has stated that all three songs will be performed in English. Furthermore, the decision is completely up to the public as the winning song will be determined solely by televoting. All three songs have been written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, more on him a little later!
Meeting Demy…
Demy is a 25-year-old singer that originates from the Greek capital of Athens. She is signed to one of Greece’s most popular record labels Panik Records and has won several awards. Most notably, Demy was crowned ‘Best New Artist’ at the 2012 MAD Music Awards. Throughout her career, Demy has released two studio albums and two EPs. In addition, her Eurovision entry will become her 20th single. Quite the career!
Demy has also been vocal about her love for Eurovision and her desire to represent Greece at the contest. Last summer, the Greek star joined Poli Genova for a duet of If Love Was A Crime at the MAD Music Awards. Check out the performance below!
Meeting Dimitris Kontopoulos…
As mentioned earlier, Demy’s three national final songs will be written by Dimitris Kontopoulos. Dimitris is one half of the so-called ‘Eurovision dream team’, more on the other half a little bit later. He is one of Greece’s most famous composers and well-known amongst Eurovision fans. Dimitris’ Eurovision pedigree is exceptional. So far he has written six entries for the contest and all six finished inside the top ten.
His first appearance at Eurovision was in 2007. In Helsinki, he was the composer of Dmitry Koldun’s Work Your Magic for Belarus. Since then he has also composed Shady Lady for Ani Lorak, This Is Our Night for Sakis Rouvas, Hold Me for Farid Mammadov, Shine for the Tolmachevy Sisters and You Are The Only One for Sergey Lazarev. Nevertheless, many fans would argue some of these songs wouldn’t have achieved the same incredible success without the other half of the ‘dream team’: Fokas Evangelinos.
Meeting Fokas Evangelinos…
It has been revealed that Fokas Evangelinos will be in charge of Demy’s Eurovision staging in 2017. Fokas has worked on the stage performances for several of Dimitris’ Eurovision songs in the past. Most notably he was responsible for the striking “man in a box” staging for Azerbaijan in 2013. Also he was in charge of the sensational technological display for Russia last year. While Greece will not have the same budget Russia would have had to stage Sergey’s entry last year, we are sure Fokas will work his magic once again in Kyiv!
Are you excited by the choice of Demy and the ‘dream team’? Will this return Greece to the Eurovision top 10 for the first time since 2013? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and via our Facebook and Twitter pages @escXtra!
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