Ukraine 2008 entrant Ani Lorak is the latest music industry personality to have praised the candidate entries for this year’s Greek selection. With the rest of us not having heard Demy’s songs yet, what are the conclusions we can draw from the comments circulating about them?
It has now been confirmed that the candidate Greek entries for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest will not be broadcast before the selection night of 6th March. As reported earlier, all songs will be sung by Greek pop sensation Demy, with Eurovision veterans Dimitris Kontopoulos and Fokas Evangelinos acting as composer and choreographer respectively.
It seems however that Dimitris Kontopoulos wished to share his songs for Demy with music industry insiders, including artists that the composer has collaborated with for Eurovision in the past.
Sergey Lazarev, who came third representing Russia in last year’s Eurovision with Kontopoulos-penned, Evangelinos-choreographed You Are The Only One, was one of the artists asked by the composer for their opinion. Yesterday, Kontopoulos posted on his personal Instagram account a photo taken at Moscow’s Carlton-Ritz Hotel showing Lazarev concentrating on his earphones. As you can see below, the accompanying hashtags left no doubt that the Russian singer was listening to the songs written for Demy with the intent of giving Kontopoulos his approval.
Today, a similar post appeared on Ani Lorak’s Instagram account. The female artist, whose real name is Karolina Myroslavivna Kuiek, came second representing Ukraine back in 2008 with Shady Lady. Like Sergey Lazarev’s 2016 Russian entry in Stockholm and Demy’s 2017 Greek entry for Kyiv, Shady Lady had also been a Eurovision project of the succesful Kontopoulos-Evangelinos Eurovision combo.
I also had the chance to listen to the three songs that Demy will sing for the Greek Eurovision entry. Three very good songs but one of the I really LOVE!
Ani Lorak
The post shows the singer in the studio with Dimitris Kontopoulos and is accompanied by the comment: ‘it’s always great to record new songs and it is even better when you do that with good friends like @dimitriskontopoulos ! I also had the chance to listen to the three songs that Demy will sing for the Greek Eurovision entry. Three very good songs but one of them I really LOVE! Good luck to my friends @dimitriskontopoulos @fokasevagelinos’ (see below).
But what is the one song that Ani Lorak is raving about? As we have already reported, everyone who has heard the songs – Demy, too, it transpires – seems to be favouring one track in particular.
Talking to Greek TV magazine To Proino, presenter and radio producer Themis Georgantas gave a good description of all three songs, including the rumoured fore-runner: ‘I have heard all three Eurovision tracks and I have to tell you the following. Dimitris Kontopoulos has written all of them. One (of them) will be a nice pop rock song, very radio-friendly, for which Demy’s sister, Romy Papadea, has written the lyrics. Then we have a formidable, American-style ballad. It is Kontopoulos, with John Ballard writing the lyrics. I will dare say that the third track is my favourite. The lyrics are by Romy together with John Ballard. It starts as a ballad and it has an awesome dance climax (…) All three tracks revolve around love lyric-wise.’
I have been following Dimitris Kontopoulos’ advice to keep level-headed.
Demy
In amongst all the media hype, Demy herself appears to stay grounded and concentrated on the task ahead. In regards to the betting odds, which, even before the release of her songs, show Demy as one of the favourites to win, the young singer commented: ‘Eurovision is hard work. It is the ultimate honour and a joy to represent your country (…) I have been following Dimitris’ (i.e. Kontopoulos) advice, who has told me not to pay attention to anything, not to follow anything, just to keep level-headed and not get disappointed even if I hear something bad (i.e. said about me) and so I try to remain detached (from all of this).’
The public will have to wait until the 6th of March before they can hear the three candidate songs of this year’s Greek selection. In the meantime, you can watch last year’s Kontopoulos/Evangelinos offering in our video below of Sergey Lazarev performing You Are The Only One in Stockholm last year.
