Moopyvision 2000-2009: Round 8 - Greece, Finland, Israel & Azerbaijan RESULTS

4th: Sakis Rouvas - This Is Our Night (125pts)
2075326.jpg


I absolutely cannot get over how much of this he spends with eyes looking like he’s in a chemsex fugue :disco:

How do you follow up a winner as dominant and all-obliterating as Hero? It’s understandable a lot of nations couldn’t tell what the answer would be. But for some reason, Greece got cum-hungry for a win in Stockholm the year after, and decided their previous bronzer was the man to deliver it (despite being 37 going on fifty). But what type of song could deliver it?

The Dream Team was turned to. What if they melded the previous year’s runner-up they’d penned, Shady Lady, with the sheer unrelenting urgency of Hero? What if it was performed as if the order was being dispensed to a continent: ”you WILL vote for this!”? Surely that could not possibly fail?

Greece, you have received… I’m sorry, 120 points



1 x 12 (@ButterTart)
1 x 0 (@Kratz :D)
 
It still kills me that the big moment in that is the stapler unfolding to unveil...a small Greek flag :D
 
3rd: Kalomoira - Secret Combination (140pts)
Screen+Shot+2018-02-16+at+10.15.07+PM.png


There felt like a lot to resent about this at the time, but after a long, long decade away from that sound - albeit with the occasional fleetingly delightful turn towards tacky synthpop in the meantime - I’m hoping Zari’s recent success opens the door a bit more towards a flash or two of this sort of thing again over the next decade. Certainly I’ve been blasting it quite a lot these last few months.

Anyway, ditzy Long Island princess Kalo:moira: here sauntered up with this at a time when it felt like Greece could get a top five with its eyes closed, and a track (penned by a man named POSEIDON YIANNOPOULOS :disco:) so relentlessly on trend it sampled the beat from previous year Timbaland #1 Give It To Me, that came prewritten with its own Dance Break Edit, which featured one of the more brazenly unsubtle ”cor she’s well fit that one!!!”-courting moments of a 21st century Eurovision performance. All other competitors were fodder to Charlotte Perrelli’s mercilessly sharp sword that year, but Kalo:moira: nonetheless came a very creditable third with 218 points (though never seriously challenged Hero in the voting, falling away each vote behind the unprecedented run of forty two consecutive 12s).

To date, this is Greece’s last top three - and, indeed, top five full stop. The powerhouse started puttering out not too long after with the Euro crisis, and within a few years Greece were hosting national finals in public shopping centres. You can’t help but hope they might well be capable of another moment like this not too soon though - not least because I imagine the beer prices in Athens have much to recommend them :disco:



1 x 12 (@Ill Advised)
1 x 0 (@Suomi :D)
 
Last edited:
NAR: Kalomoira went on to release an album with this utter Blackout B-side banger, which I imagine had the lyrics written out phonetically for her to sing reading them off the Notes app on her first gen iPhone in the recording booth :disco:

 
Also I've been informed Kalomoira recently changed her secret combination from 1234 to 5678, after a malicious forum witch revealed it to everyone after she accidentally tweeted it.
 
2nd: Antique ft. Shirley Clamp - Die For You (154pts)
dieforyou.jpeg


”That’s NOT the girl!” :D :(

Greece went into the 00s as a bit of a Eurovision backwater. As we all know, that changed in showstopping style this decade, and this woman played the pivotal part in making that happen. She couldn’t quite see it off this time around though.

Elena Paparizou was born and raised in outer Gothenburg suburbia backwater Börås (a decade after backing singer Shirley Clamp’s birth in the same town), and teamed up with childhood friend Nikos in the late 90s to form Antique, popularising the Greek music of her heritage paired with the mechanic efficiency of Swedish pop (I can heartily recommend their Greatest Hits collection, which essentially offers 14 tracks of two word chorus titles belted out over riotous schlager bouzouki ad infinitum for an hour :disco:). They ended up scoring a few Swedish hits, and decided to turn their hand towards Eurovision for their heritage nation, despite being relative strangers as emigrés.

Not that it mattered much - Die For You was a glaringly obvious hit, and swept through the Greek national final at a canter, before going into Copenhagen in 2001 as the joint favourite. Bafflingly still, Helena’s sensually mesmering ARM TO ARM choreography paired up with a track that legitimately sounded like it should’ve been a global #1 ended up being beaten out by Saturday night amateur disco karaoke hour Everybody from Estonia - I personally blame the running order, frankly - but nevertheless, she’d be back again before not too long…



4 x 12 (@Eyes, @Soldi, @Kratz, @Kevin7)
1 x 1 (@Tisch)
 
I am absolutely spending the rest of this week listening to this on repeat

 
Can confirm that Antique’s Greatest Hits was the best 250KR I spent during my trip to Malmö in 2013. :disco:
 
1st: Helena Paparizou - My Number One (196pts)
dpa-greek-singer-helena-paparizou-c-performs-her-song-on-stage-during-D3JCWT.jpg


She might have been beaten out once, but she wasn't about to let it happen twice.

Tens of gays have questioned what the notion of a "you WILL vote for this!" Eurovision entry is, or embodies. Certainly, it's a concept that is sometimes complicated to describe the essence of, particularly when it involves some of the most satisfying and beautiful examples of the genre: the ones where the order was not heeded. An entry that demands "you WILL vote for this!" and fails often has a surfeit of arrogance, and a gimlet-eyed preponderance - spilling into overload - of desperation. Usually, it doesn't quite manage to cash the cheque it writes.

This is an entry that demands "you WILL vote for this" - no exclamation mark - and succeeds. It is assured. It has arrogance. There is a degree of desperation to its spirit, but it is immaculately concealed by how well constructed, thought through and rehearsed the plan is. It comes armed to the teeth, and unleashes an unrelenting assault on the viewer for why they should vote for this. There is energy. There is power. There is yeah yeah, fire. It has an immediate, jaw-gaping chorus. A rhyming scheme so ridiculous you must accept (don't get METICULOUS). An instantly catchy, memorable dance break after each verse. Oh, you aren't convinced? Here's a man lying down for a raised Helena to play a human cello from. Still have your doubts? The backing dancers are lying down in the shape of the number 1. I'm your number one.

Say you love me. And you'll have me. It's not a request. It's an order.



12 x 12 (@Penelope, @Suomi, @Jacques, @Pingu, @VoR, @auretz, @Tisch, @Marina Salty, @D5K, @Music, @dmlaw, @ZenGiraffe)
2 x 4 (@win_the_game, @Ill Advised)
 
God it really is a TUNELESS BANGER of the VERY HIGHEST ORDER in the verses!
 
Is Helena the Eurovision winner with the best back catalogue outside the Contest besides ABBA?

She’d have to be up there. Her solo career combined with Antique is an absolute bounty.
 
I swear a better record label could have given her a moment as a genuine global star post-Eurovision.

I remember seeing Mambo a few times on The Box, much to my excitement. Alas, nothing came of it.

 
I still have a lot of time for the total thrillride Gigolo as singles off that album go. TBH, the whole LP was a big classic chez Pen in my teenage years!



 
And of course, shoutout to the 2017 Bioten-powered, Ace of Base-inspired summer hit HAIDE, featuring a waiter being floored by Helena's new face 😍

 
  • Love
Reactions: VoR
VoR said:
I swear a better record label could have given her a moment as a genuine global star post-Eurovision.

I remember seeing Mambo a few times on The Box, much to my excitement. Alas, nothing came of it.

Click to expand...


I recall there being a club mix of Mambo that was oddly popular in provincial straight clubs (!) around late 2006-07.
 
  • Like
Reactions: VoR
Penelope said:
Not that it mattered much - Die For You was a glaringly obvious hit, and swept through the Greek national final at a canter,
Click to expand...
You’d think, wouldn’t you - but it somehow had to go to tiebreak with this :D



Not sure I’d like that alternative timeline!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top Bottom