Greece first entered the Eurovision Song Contest
in 1974 but had to wait thirty years for their first Top 3 finish.
Greece won the the contest in 2005, and are the only country to
have finished in the Top 10 in each of the last three years.
This year Greek broadcaster ERT faced the
dilemma of sustaining domestic interest in the Eurovision Song
Conteat, after the excitement of the past two years, who they first
won, and then staged the competition.
This year it was decided to revert to a
multi-artst national final, for the first time since 2002, and four
acts were named by ERT in January. However by the time the
final came around on February 28th, only three entries were left,
following a withdrawal. Among the finalists was Christos Dantis,
one of the songwriters behind the winning Greek entry in 2005
"My Number One".
Despite starting as the outsider of the three
finalists, the winner chosen by a very convaluted system using both
a televote and jury was "Yassou Maria" (Hello Maria) sung
by Sarbel.
Sarbel was born in London on May 14th 1981 to a
Greek Cypriot father, Elias, himself a singer and bouzouki player
famous in England for many years, and a Lebanese mother. Although
raised and educated in the U.K. Sarbel's family made frequent
summer holiday trips to Greece and Cyprus. Sarbel studied music,
drama, and performing arts at university and from the age of 5 to
16 he performed at the English National Opera and the Royal Opera
House Covent Garden and has recorded "Tosca" in English
for Chandos Recordings as the shepherd boy.
At 18, looking for a change in his life for his
gap year, Sarbel went to Crete, where he sang at the Heraklion
Palladium. At the age of 21, still living on the Greek island of
Crete since his gap year, he was signed on by Sony BMG (Greece) on
a six-year recording contract. By the next year, Sarbel had hit the
Greek, Cypriot, and Arabic music scene and gained popularity as a
singer and sex symbol, particularly amongst young female fans.
He shot into the limelight in 2004, when he
recorded the ethnic flavoured hit "Se Pira Sovara", based
on the Arabic song "Sidi Mansour" and featuring popular
Greek singer Irini Merkouri. In 2005 Sarbel released his first solo
album, entitled "Paraxeno Synesthima". This album went
Gold and was subsequently re-released with the Wella-sponsored song
"Thelo na Petaxo" and a bonus track "Boro
Boro", which he made famous during his MAD Award Ceremony
appearance. The songs "Se Pira Sovara",
"Sokolata", and "Thelo Na Petakso" became hits
and the video clips became popular on Greece's music channels.
In July 2006, he released his second album,
"Sahara" and later the same year he recorded a duet with
Greek singer Natassa Theodoridou called "Na' Soun
Thalassa" which was later included as a bonus song on the
album. The tracks "Taxe Mou" and "Sahara"
instantly became hits. Another single from the album: "Enas
Apo Mas" followed those that had gone before, becoming a radio
hit athe video establishing Sarbel as one of Geece's most popular
young stars. Later in 2006 he once again performed at the Mad Music
awards this time performing the song "Thriller" by
Michael Jackson showcasing his English language talent.
The
song which Sarbel will perform in Helsinki, has a Greek title, but
otherwise the lyrics are in English and is the work of Swedish
songwriters. Composer Marcus Englof started playing the guitar at a very young age. He studied music in numerous respectable academies, while at the same time he studied sound engineering and
production. Also a performer in his own right, Marcus turned down the offer by a big record company to sign a contract for his own solo album, and decided to collaborate with Andreas
Carlsson, and produce records by artists such as Bon Jovi and Paul
Stanley (Kiss). He later became acquainted with co-composer Alex
Papaconstantinou and together they joined forces to write successful hits for both Swedish and Greek
artists including 2005 Eurovision winner Helena Paparizou.
Alex
Papaconstantinou was born in Stockholm in 1979. A bouzouki given
to him by his father which was an initiative for him to start
pursuing a career in music. He studied in the finest musical
academy in Sweden, and went to Greece to work in Giorgos Aikaios''
ensemble. With the certainty that he should start composing music,
Alex went back to Sweden and wrote big hits for famous artists
like Helena Paparizou, Cheb Khaled, Anna Vissi and Cameron Cartio.
The
lyricist of the Greek entry is 29 year-old Swde "Mack"
who has already been working for ten years as a successful composer and as the head of an independent Swedish record company, called
Ten. He has written songs for successful artists such as A Teens, Helena
Paparizou, Luis Fonsi, and also for many of the winners of talent shows across Europe.
Unlike
the last three Greek entries, "Yassou Maria" will not
start as one of the favourites in Helsinki. Sarbel has done some
limited international promotion taking in places like Turkey and
the U.K. but nevertheless the song is still doing reasonably well
on internet polls.
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FINLAND @ EUROVISION