Greece has always been a hot favourite when it comes to Eurovision, with a handful of Top 10 results over their years of participation. In more recent years, the nation has managed to qualify consistently, minus the one hiccup of 2016. Last year Greece qualified through to the final in 10th spot, right on the edge, so is Greece losing their Eurovision touch?
This year, their national selection was a bit of a mess, with a public selection scheduled, with a handful of internally selected artists, but interestingly enough all but one were disqualified. Sure, Greece, if you want an internal selection just do an internal selection, why fuss around! After that mess, it was announced that Gianna Terzi would be representing Greece with her song Oneiro Mou, but will this song change the luck of Greece at Eurovision?
Hmm, this one is an interesting one. The Greek broadcaster wanted an ethnic sounding song, and that’s certainly what they got. There’s no doubt that this song has instrumental beauty, well complimented by Gianna’s traditional vocals. It has the makings of a song that surely I would enjoy…
…But yet something feels missing from this song. I’ve listened to this numerous times, and I can’t help but feel that this song is really quite flat. I think the verses are really beautiful, and it’s that real traditional sound that I really enjoy, but it’s the choruses that feel a bit two dimensional for me personally. I find it a bit difficult to connect with the melody of the choruses, and that seems to be putting me off the song as a whole.
This has been getting some pretty good reviews all round, and objectively I see why. This stands out from a lot of the other songs, being not only an ethnic ballad, but one in national language. This song has its competition in the Armenian entry primarily, since both feature a build over the three minutes and ethnic elements, but realistically I can see room for both in the final. Both also have a negative in common, which is actually that both need to be a bit more hard hitting. In this song specifically, that instrumental break and the final chorus need to be bigger and more intense, and I think only then would the song appeal to me more than it currently does.
All aboard… the ethno-ballad train!
This song definitely has its positives with those being its ethnic connections, the national language and a confident artist. I would expect quite a theatrical stage performance to match the drama of the song, and with all that combined I would be fairly surprised if this didn’t qualify through to the final. With Greece’s qualification history, a song like this would, and very likely will cruise through to the final.
Despite that, it’s just not clicking with me. I don’t not like it, but I also preference a lot of the other songs over the Greek entry.
Our rating: 6/10
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