Twenty-four year old singer Vasiliki Stefanou has become the third artist to publicly confirm that she has submitted an entry for the consideration of Greek public broadcaster ERT and its national final for Eurovision 2018.
Vasiliki Stefanou is a musicology student in the National and Capodistrian University of Athens. The young singer has previously studied piano, musical theory and harmony and has already had collaborations with credible artists in the Greek music scene.
As previously reported, ERT is working on putting together a national final regarding the selection of the Greek entry for Lisbon. With a deadline of 20th October fast approaching, Vasiliki is only the third artist to have publicly confirmed they have submitted a song after Areti Ketime and Panagiotis Tsakalakos did so some days ago.
Vasiliki purports that she prefers traditional, soulful music to the ‘plastic shininess’ of reality shows and the commercial part of the music scene in Greece. She describes her entry as a ‘love song’ with musical elements reminiscent of the traditional music of Epirus, the Western part of mainland Greece.
This is consistent with ERT stipulations for this year, which favour Greek lyrics and traditional musical elements. Indeed, a characteristic of Vasiliki’s song will be the use of clarinet – the musical instrument being typical to both Greek and, more broadly, Balkan traditional music.
A close translation of Vasiliki’s flowery statement to InfeGreece (in Greek) translates as follows:
I am very happy that I will participate as a candidate for the competition part of Eurovision, one of the longest running music events with millions of tele viewers around the world. My record label, Polymusic, after a letter by ERT to record companies with which it set the terms and conditions for participation in the contest. I thank them for the honour and trust. Our song is full of traditional sound elements, following an Epirus musical style and with Greek lyrics. The creators of the song are Giorgos Kyriakos and Magda Varoucha, young talented creators and friends of mine. It is a love song framed by the traditional sound of the clarinet, (thus) representing the melodic motifs of Epirus, and, at the same time, endowing tradition with new breath through ‘ethnic’ elements. I find the recommendations this year from ERT and the ‘restriction’ as to the fact that it will accept candidate songs that will have solely Greek lyrics and a Greek sound as absolutely consistent with the musical path I have been carving and, due to that, I am twice as happy. I hope that our song will have the recognition it deserves and that it will represent Greece at the final in Lisbon.
Vasiliki Stefanou on her entry for the Greek national final.
In the following video, you can watch Vasiliki’s rendition of Ola Se Thymizoun (Everything Is Reminiscent Of You), a much-loved ballad within Greece, during a popular Saturday night show.
https://youtu.be/e-w5U8plcW0
What are your impressions of the artists that have confirmed interest so far? Does it look like the Greek final is going the right way? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
