Cyprus 1998

The Cyprus final took place on Wednesday, March 11th at 21.05 local time (19.05 GMT) and was screened on RIK on the Sirius II satellite at 5 deg E.

The 20-person Cypriot jury chose "Yenesis" sung by Michalis Hadjiyiannis (right) to represent Cyprus in Birmingham in May. In second place was Alexandros Panayi & Marlene Angelidou with "Fterougisma", with my favourite, "Ligi hara yia tin Mona", sung by Annie, in third place.

Lyrics are now given further below.

An excellent contest, with some fine entries, and a great interval series of acts. The show opened with 'Mana Mou', but nobody on stage. Were Hara & Andreos supposed to be performing?

Marina Maleni and Lucas Hamatsos came on, and we were quickly into the 8 songs; between them, 'postcards' of the artists painting accompanied by music from old US TV series like
'Bewitched', and 'The Odd Couple'!

My thoughts (scores from Martinos Perdikis):

1. 'MAGISSA MOIRA' Pan pipes opened this song sung by a flame-haired singer in a dress which kept dropping. Rather a lot of words, but not much melody.38pts
   

2. 'LIGI HARA YIA TIN MONA' (right) Dark stage for a song which was by turns quiet & slow, then loud and fast. Well-performed and interesting,but the high-pitched cries probably limited its appeal. I liked it, though. Came third.108pts
   
3. 'PREPEI NA XEHASTEIS' Four dancers back the female lead Nasia in this upbeat cheerful song. Nasia looks a bit too old for this song, which probably belongs in the 1970's. Too much echo marred.52pts
   
4. 'NYHTA MIN PEIS' Two female dancers. Interesting medium-paced sexy song. Not enough in the way of a 'hook.' 95pts
   
5. 'ONEIRO' Just Kyriakos and a ?bouzouki player. Tries to be loud & dramatic, but is rather repetitive.98pts
   
6. 'FTEROUGISMA' (right) Slow, almost anthemic, then big drums bring a big ending. Marlene sings very well. Came 2nd.123pts
   
7. 'ONOMASE ME' A girl paints Yiorgos while he sings. Rather loud slow romantic ballad.108pts
   
8. 'YENESIS' Irish-sounding flutes & smoke, then a loud fairly fast gospel-like song, building in anthemic style. The winner! 158pts

After the eight songs, we were treated to a fine interval session with songs by Hara & Andros Constantinou (two songs each), Evridiki (picture below the table) and Greek pop singer Yiorgos Alkaios.

Martinos Perdikis in Cyprus reviews the contest:

19 year old soldier Michalis Hadjiyiannis will sing his composition 'Yenesis' at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. The lyrics are by Zinonas Zintilis, the arrangement by Costas Cacoyiannis and the backing vocals by four girls from the famous Limassol Music & Dance Group 'Diastasis' of which Cacoyiannis is Musical Director.

Although not my favourite on the night, I can see why this song won. It had a great arrangement with great keyboard riffs which coincidentally reminded me of the Rock Group GENESIS of the 70's!! Thus, Michalis's melody which sounded dated and ordinary (standard 80's Europop) was hidden out by some well arranged backing vocal work which sounded more like sound effects.

The lyrics(some words still in doubt)

Earlier preview from Martinos, plus a new picture of Evridiki;

WE' RE LOOKING FORWARD TO A GREAT CONTEST!!

With the announcement of the performers of this year's National Contest, it seems that there are three very strong favourites for the prize.

The fact that 1995 performer Alexandros Panayi (picture) and Rock opera singer Marlene Angelidou (sang in Stavros Sideras's recent musical Pygmalion, the true story) will sing together on Yiorgos Kallis's song 'FTEROUGISMA' puts it as the one that seems to fight equally against Michalis Hadjiyiannis & Kyriakos Zoumboulakis who are confirmed as singers of their own songs.

Of course, I haven't heard the songs yet, but we know that Yiorgos Stamataris (ONOMASE ME) and Dalida Mitzi (NYHTA MIN PEIS) who also took part last year with the same songwriters as this year will find it hard to compete against the three above. Nasia Trahonitou (PREPEI NA XEHASTEIS) could ring some bells in Eurofans' ears as she was a backing singer in many previous Cyprus songs. She has just released an album and could be taken as a strong outsider.

I'm still unaware of who Annie (LIGI HARA YIA TI MONA) and Elena (MAGISSA MOIRA) are who sing the other two songs.

The contest which will take place at Monte Caputo at my home town Limassol will be presented by Marina Maleni (again) and Lucas Hamatsos (took part as a performer in a previous National Contest) and will of course be screened live over satellite on March 11th at 19.00 GMT.

Evridiki (right) was notable among the interval acts.

At around 9pm, 1st February CyBC announced the songtitles and songwriters of the eight songs that qualify for the televised final which will take place at 'Monte Caputo' on Wednesday, 11th March at 21.00 (you can hear it live on CyBC's page on Radio 3).

Among 53 submitted songs, the 11-member jury chose the following eight:

Thanks goes to Martinos Perdikis in Cyprus. Why not visit his "Cyprus at Eurovision" pages?

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