Cyprus kicked off the Eurochallenge part of their Eurovision 2015 selection process last night. After 6 weeks with audition rounds, the 20 artists who quallified competed for a place in the top10 and the next Eurochallenge round.
After concluding the auditions’ round last week, Cyprus’ Eurovision Song Project went to phase 2 today: the EuroChallenges. In this stage of the competition the twenty artists that had already quallified, sang again their songs but this time not only in front of the four known judges –Alex Panayis (Cyprus 1995,2000), Helena Patroklou (Cyprus 1991), Despina Olimpiou (Cyprus 2013) and radio producer Tasos Trifonos- as two more judges were added to the jury. The greek famous composer Dimitris Kontopoulos who penned a lot of eurovision hits (Greece 2009, Azerbaijan 2013, Belarus 2007) and the swedish head of delegation Christer Bjorkman will help CyBC with their great experience in the music contest, to select the most appropriate songs for the cypriot national final.
Andri Karandoni the hostess of the show explained to the tv viewers that now they will be able to listen to the full version of the songs and not only 1 minute as for the auditions.
In the following running order we saw again the 20 competing artists, performing live their candidate songs in front of the 6 judges:
- Emili Charalampous with Right In
Emili had a pop song which as Christer said is very common especially within the Eurovision Song Contest. Her voice also is suitable to these type of songs, something that had been noticed as well in the auditions.
- Doody with Magic
Doody got good coments, despite his poor vocals and his simple melody.
- Nearchos Evangelou & Charis Savva with Deila den agapo
The first duet of the night and the only song with French lyrics. Nearchos and Charis excited the judges especially Dimitris Kontopoulos. They all said that this song reminded them of old Eurovision Song Contest entries.
- Christos Riallas with Meine
This is the only completely greek song of the night. It’s an ethnik song with folk elements.
- Maria Moskofian & Christiana Chatziandreou with Sailing ships, pirates and dragons
An epic song here. Maybe the biggest surprise of the 1st round. Christer Bjorkman said that the girls have great vocals but it’s not a song for Eurovision.
- Minus 1 with Shine
The only rock song of the night. Many people support this song. A rock band with a rock song using a greek traditional instrument in the bridge of the song, "mpaglamas". A risky choice.
- Giannis Karagiannis with One thing i should have done
The judges here said that Giannis’s ballad is very sweet but it reminded them of Lisa Andreas‘s song, which is penned by the same composer.
- Apollonia with Don’t give up on me (just yet)
Apollonia got maybe the worst comments of the night. Christer said that he didn’t like the song and Despina Olimpiou who supported her a lot in the auditions didn’t like her this time either.
- Maria Evangellou with Still
Maria with her different style didn’t manage to appeal to the judges this time.
- Eleni Irakleous with Dawn
Eleni managed to gained great comments again about her voice, but some of the judged said that her song maybe is too weak for the Eurovision Song Contest.
- Yuri with Victorious
Yuri had a scandi-pop song. Christer said that this is a bad song of this style.
- Hovig with Stone like a river
A song about humanity here. Hovig managed to excite the judges with his voice and not so much with his song. Christer said that he didn’t like his song so much, but other judges like Despina supported it.
- Panagiotis Koufogiannis with Without your love
Panagiotis has a really strong song. A ballad that captures you from the first note. The judges disagreeded about if the songs needed a climax in the end or not. However all the judges said that this is a really nice entry.
- Valence with Scared
Nobody expected that song in top20. It was a really surprise. Christer said that this isn’t a bad song, but his voice can not support it.
- Kiriakos Gergiou with Shake dat
Kiriakos had a modern pop song, He tried to dance also with not so much success. The judges said the same bad things about his voice as in the auditions.
- Luna with I wanna dance (say tempo)
Luna sang his latin song, but it didn’t manage to excite the judges.
- Ioanna Protopappa with Beat of my heart
This is the most Eurovision-type song of the night. All the judges liked Ioanna but they also all have their doubts if a Eurosong can succeed in Eurovision in 2015.
- Cristina Tselepou with In these arms
Christina has a really nice voice and a descend ballad. Christer said that this is a typical Eurovision ballad but Christina connected very well with the song.
- Eva Diva with Come and fight for freedom
Eva Diva with her night dress sang her song, making the same movements as in the auditions. Despite the fact that it was funny to see that, the judges liked her appearance.
- Pieros Kezos with Said it all before
Pieros sang his entry very confident and really gave an amazing performance. A really interesting proposal here.
After the 20 songs, the judges called the candidates in pair and announced to them the results:
- Panagiotis Koufogiannis QUALLIFIED and Kiriakos Georgiou disquallified
- Minus 1 QUALLIFIED and Pieros Kezou QUALLIFIED
- Yuri disquallified and Nearchos & Charis QUALLIFIED
- Maria Evangelou disquallified and Eva Diva disquallified
- Ioanna Protopappa QUALLFIED and Maria & Christianna disquallified
- Christina Tselepou QUALLIFIED and Doody QUALLIFIED
- Apollonia disquallified and Giannis Karagiannis QUALLIFIED
- Luna disquallified and Hovig QUALLIFIED
- Emili Charalampous disquallified and Valence disquallified
- Christos Riallas QUALLIFIED and Eleni Irakleous disquallified
So the 10 songs that will compete next week in EuroChallenge 2 and fight for a place in the final top6 are:
- Panagiotis Koufogiannis with Without Your Love
- Christina Tselepou with In these Arms
- Ioanna Protopappa with Beat of my heart
- Minus 1 with Shine
- Giannis Karagiannis with One thing i should have done
- Pieros Kezou with Said it all before
- Nearchos Evangellou & Charis Savva with Deila den Agapo
- Christos Riallas with Meine
- Doody with Magic
- Hovig with Stone in a river
Next Friday, the 23rd of January, at 21.20 CET you can watch Eurochallenge 2 here and find out which will be the final 6 songs that will fight for the euroticket in the Cypriot national final.
In my view
Cyprus has a really interesting national selection this year, with a lot of great voices and unfortunatelly few good songs.This time we had the chance for the first time of the beginning of the show to listen the full songs.I thing that without your love is a very strong entry with a tallented singer that can bring Cyprus a very good result.Stone in a river is also an interesting song.Great lyrics about humanity and a singer with strong vocals.Deila den agapo reminded us old eurovision songs, and this might be a nice proposal for europeans, with two young singers that can really sing.Pieros didn’t manage to excite the judges in the auditions but this time it was an apocalypsis.People in youtube and twitter send their comments and it seems until now that 3 or 4 songs are their favourites.Next week we will see again the 10 songs and maybe we will have a more specific opinion.
The opinion expressed in "In my view" are those of the author and are not necessarily the one of EuroVisionary.com.
