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Greece GREECE 2017 - Demy - This Is Love

How do you rate the entry?

  • 12

    23 11.2%
  • 10

    6 2.9%
  • 8

    15 7.3%
  • 7

    19 9.2%
  • 6

    25 12.1%
  • 5

    17 8.3%
  • 4

    18 8.7%
  • 3

    18 8.7%
  • 2

    13 6.3%
  • 1

    15 7.3%
  • 0

    37 18.0%

  • Total voters
    206

Edward

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Apart from my own country and Poland, this was the only other country I really liked and wanted to do well tonight.

I suppose that considering the facts that last year Greece flopped and that Demy only 10th on her semi this can be seen as a decent enough result. Though considering the entire quality of the contest this was a clear top 10 song to me (top 5...top 3....shhh).

I loved nearly everything on the performance. The staging was very memorable, the song leads up to an explosion of pure loving pop in just the right way and the "swan dancers" in sync were quite something to watch (actually, thinking of backing dancers this year it was in overall pretty weak...so perhaps this might have been one of the best pairs, indeed).

I really love it when the song breaks down. The "underwater hologram/whatever" is amazing but the strings going happily wild on top of that are just the best thing about that part of the song. Personal climax.
 

Kaz

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January 12, 2014
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Tbh the best parts of the whole night were when the Greek/Cypriot juries awarded each other 12 points and the crowd boo'd both times. Glad to see they're finally catching on to their tricks.
 

ES2011

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^We don't care anymore. :mrgreen:

When the Scandinavians, the Baltic countries and the former Soviet ones exchange 10-12 points, they are interwoven with each other ... we are talking about so much hypocrisy ...

Not really though, using the excuse of "everybody does it" is exactly the problem.
- :ie: juries gave 0 points to :uk:
- :se: juries gave 0 points to :no: and only 5 to :dk:
- :dk: and :fi: uries did give 12 points to :se:, but they ended top 5 so a lot of other countries agreed, where did Greece end up?
- :no: juires only gave 6 points to :se:

There is no denying there is some bias in each European country and when this is the televote I might even be willing to accept it.
But if so called "professional" juries give not 5, 8 or 10, but 12 points to their neighbour, when the rest of all the countries barely give you anything, you really need to take a hard reflective look at yourself. Greece got almost 33% from it's points from Cyprus, that is a significant difference.
If it's the televote I would be annoyed but I would understand, this is just touching the line of cheating.
 

DenizESC

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Tbh the best parts of the whole night were when the Greek/Cypriot juries awarded each other 12 points and the crowd boo'd both times. Glad to see they're finally catching on to their tricks.

And the worst moment was when a disrespectful Aussie opened his butt in front of the previous winner and made fun of her. ;)
 

AlekS

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And the worst moment was when a disrespectful Aussie opened his butt in front of the previous winner and made fun of her. ;)
It was Ukrainian troll, it has nothing to do with Australia :lol:
 

Apostolos

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There is no denying there is some bias in each European country and when this is the televote I might even be willing to accept it.
But if so called "professional" juries give not 5, 8 or 10, but 12 points to their neighbour, when the rest of all the countries barely give you anything, you really need to take a hard reflective look at yourself. Greece got almost 33% from it's points from Cyprus, that is a significant difference.
If it's the televote I would be annoyed but I would understand, this is just touching the line of cheating.
There is no denying there is some bias in each European country and when this is the televote I might even be willing to accept it.
But if so called "professional" juries give not 5, 8 or 10, but 12 points to their neighbour, when the rest of all the countries barely give you anything, you really need to take a hard reflective look at yourself. Greece got almost 33% from it's points from Cyprus, that is a significant difference.
If it's the televote I would be annoyed but I would understand, this is just touching the line of cheating.

Imo, it is hypocrisy because for example on 2015 Greece had a good song and the singer was Greek Cypriot. Cyprus gave it 8pts, so the jury must have given it ~6pts or something. And last year that we sent a bad song the jury just gave it 3pts.

I saw that Finland and Denmark gave 12 points to Sweden. Imo, there were around 15 songs better than that.

And Cyprus is usually underrated imo. Their song was one of the few songs I liked, like Georgia and Cyprus last year and what those songs have in common is Thomas G:son from Sweden.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_G:son

the Greek jury last year:
Russia 12
Armenia 10
Cyprus 8
Australia 7
France 6
Georgia 5
Hungary 3
Ukraine 2
Azerbajan 1

the Greek jury this year:
Cyprus 12
Azerbajan 10
Armenia 8
Moldova 7
Romania 6
Portugal 5
Italy 4
Belarus 3
Bulgaria 2
UK 1

I can't say our jury is perfect but I was happy for the 3pts to Belarus this year for example (for the fact that our jury appreciated what I appreciated about it, I may write on that thread).

Also our jury this year gave 10pts to Azerbajan. Irrespective of my opinion on it, Azerbajan is like friends of our 'enemies' (Turkey) and enemies of our friends (Armenia), so there's nothing political about giving 10pts to Azerbajan.

Juries shouldn't exist in the first place, though. Imo they were created mostly because some countries were unhappy about diaspora vote. They make the contest more political.

-Addition-
On 2014 the Greek jury gave 12 points to Norway. Televoting+juries
Austria 12
Russia 10
Netherlands 8
Armenia 7
Hungary 6
Ukraine 5
Switzerland 4
Norway 3
Sweden 2
Poland 1

On 2015 the Greek jury gave 12 points to Italy. Televoting+juries=
Italy 12
Cyprus 10
Russia 8
Belgium 7
Albania 6
Australia 5
Sweden 4
Latvia 3
Georgia 2
Armenia 1

You should be more concerned about the juries that affected the results the previous two years.
 

Greekboy

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Location
USA
Greece (Greek team in Kyiv) sent to EBU a protest letter/mail with complaints about the (very) bad organization. Fokas and EBU had agreed different things on stage 1.5 month before, and 5 days before the rehearsals the EBU said that due to ''safety reasons'', the prop the Greek Team had agreed to bring on stage ( a big swing ) can not be implemented. Also the email to EBU has complaints about the camera work and lighting.

When Fokas has complained about that the Production said: ''This year you can't do the things you did with Russia last year''.

omg...:?


Surprised this wasn't discussed more.
 

genreJake09

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May 15, 2016
Posts
102
29 points from the televote is slightly dubious, it will be interesting to see where greece go from here. imo like the united kingdom they struggle to produce staging/songs/vocals much better than this for eurovision
 

ES2011

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Imo, it is hypocrisy because for example on 2015 Greece had a good song and the singer was Greek Cypriot. Cyprus gave it 8pts, so the jury must have given it ~6pts or something. And last year that we sent a bad song the jury just gave it 3pts.

Again that is your personal opinion, in my opinion Greece 2015 was mediocre at best, but that is a matter of opinion.
Also in this year Greece got 15 from its 23 points from its buddies Cypres and Armemia, without them your chances of making the final that year were minimal.

I saw that Finland and Denmark gave 12 points to Sweden. Imo, there were around 15 songs better than that.

And Cyprus is usually underrated imo. Their song was one of the few songs I liked, like Georgia and Cyprus last year and what those songs have in common is Thomas G:son from Sweden.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_G:son

Again, in you opinion. But that is not the point. I didn't like Swedens song this year either, but apparently all the juries DID, as they got points from all over Europe. So Finland and Denmarks points were more justifyiable (while of course being slightly biased), since there was some form of consensus among juries that the song was good, which is how it should be.
Greece on the other hand wasn't deemed good by almost any international jury except for buddies Cyprus and Armenia.
THATS the main difference. You can give a little more points to a country because it's your friend, maybe even 12 points if the song is good enough. But I draw the line that you almost get half of your points from your friends, when the rest of Europe doesn't appreciate the song at all.

the Greek jury last year:
Russia 12
Armenia 10
Cyprus 8
Australia 7
France 6
Georgia 5
Hungary 3
Ukraine 2
Azerbajan 1

the Greek jury this year:
Cyprus 12
Azerbajan 10
Armenia 8
Moldova 7
Romania 6
Portugal 5
Italy 4
Belarus 3
Bulgaria 2
UK 1

-Addition-
On 2014 the Greek jury gave 12 points to Norway. Televoting+juries
Austria 12
Russia 10
Netherlands 8
Armenia 7
Hungary 6
Ukraine 5
Switzerland 4
Norway 3
Sweden 2
Poland 1

On 2015 the Greek jury gave 12 points to Italy. Televoting+juries=
Italy 12
Cyprus 10
Russia 8
Belgium 7
Albania 6
Australia 5
Sweden 4
Latvia 3
Georgia 2
Armenia 1

Also our jury this year gave 10pts to Azerbajan. Irrespective of my opinion on it, Azerbajan is like friends of our 'enemies' (Turkey) and enemies of our friends (Armenia), so there's nothing political about giving 10pts to Azerbajan.

Again, despite the argument of giving points to Azerbaijan, Norway and Italy, these were all songs that ended up in the top 10 anyway. You are praising your juries for doing the job they are supposed to do?
In the meantime the Greek juries give to Cyprus: 12 (2017), 8 (2016), 10 (2015).
Cyprus juries gave to Greece: 12 (2017), 3 which is as much as you can justify i guess (2016) and 5 (2015)

Juries shouldn't exist in the first place, though. Imo they were created mostly because some countries were unhappy about diaspora vote. They make the contest more political.

You should be more concerned about the juries that affected the results the previous two years.

Despite its flaws this is exactly WHY juries should exists.
You complain about juries making things too political, but justify Greece and Cyprus giving each other 8,10,12 points every year?
Juries (attempt) to take away the political aspect (not always successfully as Greece and Cyprus have shown)
If you get rid of the juries you will scare away countries that put in the effort but got rejected a way to the final due to a lack of neighbours or diaspora.
After my country did not qualify for 6 years in a row under 100% televote (some of which deserved to be in the final), everybody in my country lost interest and screamed to just step out of the competition. I even stopped watching for a while. Now with the juries, the contest is finally gaining popularity again.

If we go back to 100% televote we go back to the dark ages of eurovision where not the best songs would qualify, but where most seats were already reserved for the countries with the biggest diaspora who sometimes did not care what they send.
In the end it's still about the best song or act, it's not a popularity contest who is best friends with each other.
It would have been very doubtful if Greece would have made the final this year without Cyprus being in the same final.
It's only a few points, but it is enough to block out those entries from countries that deserved to go through on their own strength.
 

Apostolos

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May 15, 2017
Posts
2
Without the juries Russia would have won last year and Italy two years before (the countries our jury happened to chose). It is debatable if the winners were actually better. The choice to not give any points to Russia can be political, although one can never be sure.

Greece doesn't have any buddies apart from Cyprus really (Europe is full of Germanic, Romance & Slavic countries) and the booing has happened many times in the past, even when there's was just televoting. Either way the 12 points to Cyprus this year were not less justifiable then the points Finland and Danemark gave to Sweden.
 

Realest

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I dont get the hate. Im not sure, but i think Demy is one of the biggest stars in Cyprus so its definetely allowed for cyprish Juries to give their 12 Points to Greece.
 

Greekboy

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Posts
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Location
USA
Just for fun... This was a Demy ESC reject. Music by Dimitris Kontopoulos, Lyrics by John Ballad and Romy Papadea (Demy's sister)

Greek version is currently number 10 on Greek airplay and fast rising.
 

Realest

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And Hovig is a huge star in Greece :lol:

At least he is a bit famous, since he was 7th place in X-Factor Greece and had some tours in Greece...


Last Year the Greek Jury gave 8 to Cyprus and Cyprus returned 3 Points.
2015 Greece ranked Cyprus 4-5th i think and Cyprus ranked Greece 6th.
So it is no selfevidence to get 12 Points from their neighbour. Demy and Hovig fought for it and deserved it imo.

This Year the cypriot Jury ranked Greek [2,1,6,1,2] and Greek Jury ranked Cyprus [1,6,8,1,2]. There is no reason to complain about Pointstraficking.
 

Greekboy

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Posts
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Location
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That Demy/ESC reject by Tamta I posted above hit number 1 on Greek airplay. Meanwhile Demy's new single post ESC...... :?

Award show remix below. We could have had something like this on ESC stage if Demy picked this song instead of "This is Love".

 

Realest

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Demy is the only ESC-Artist this year whose songs I started to listen after the Tournament even if she is only 13/42 in My List.
 

tuorem

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My review of "This Is Love":

-Greece has never been a nation I particularly liked in ESC. During their successful years, I thought they relied too much on a recipe which ended up annoying me. Then, they started sending other things than their "entertaining Greekness" formula while completely disappearing from the top ten map. The only Greek entries I enjoyed this decade are "Watch My Dance" (their best effort by far in the 2010's imo) and "One Last Breath" (unoriginal but refreshing ballad coming from Greece). To a lesser extent, I admit I kinda liked "Aphrodisiac", but it didn't change the fact it was cheap and all heard before. After an unexpected failure last year, I wondered what Greeks would send in Kiev, and the final product surprised me (not in a good way though). "This Is Love" is a typical europop song that would have been hot in 2008 I guess, sending this in 2017 felt a little too late and lazy imo. It was pretty clear Greeks didn't want to win, yet they could have found better. The composer of the song may be a living legend with a long series of hits behind him - I don't know - all I assume is his talent didn't really show through in this effort tbh. I won't linger over the offending lyrics whose sole purpose was to give the singer something to sing: they were cliché, filled with poor rhymes and metaphors, and basically told nothing. Eurovision isn't a poetry contest and I sometimes can overlook bad lyrics if the music makes up for it, but that's sadly not the case here. It began with a sound reminding me a horn, I'm not sure what it was exactly; then the first verse featured a piano, a background synth, strings, an electro beat (later on) and Demy's voice. Actually - despite being relatively anonymous - I enjoyed the melody there (for what is was): it was melodious and flowed nicely, shame the arrangements were very cheap and Eurovisiony. The worst part though is the chorus with its overly plain melody and dance-y instrumentation and break: who hasn't heard that zillions times already? It reminded me of the nightmare the mainstream pop scene was when EDM was trendy, yuck. The second verse featured added drums and synth, giving a bit more life to the composition, I really think they should have kept the verses only and built something else from there. The nice surprise to me was the bridge with its unexpected horn sounds and strings, which departed from the typical europop vibe this song has. The song ended with a third chorus and the sentence "this is love". To me "This Is Love" is the uptempo equivalent of "On My Way": both brought a style that has aged really badly in my opinion, the music was as generic and Eurovisiony as possible, and the lyrics were really not up to the standard I can bear. The only thing I save is the melody of the verses, which would have deserved more than a cheap setting. I would take "Rise Up" (2014) over this anytime tbh. Pros: the pleasant enough melody of the verses. Cons: cheap arrangements, uninspired chorus, generic lyrics, the EDM breaks, too Eurovisiony-sounding.

As I said, the only parts I do enjoy are the verses, so those would be my highlights here.

-Vocally, Demy was a so-so performer to me. Her vocal tone was rather clear and acceptable, despite not being that special. I thought her performances were okay-ish, nothing really bad, but nothing really great either to say about it. Apparently, it wasn't she who hit the "high" note of the chorus: then why not have adapted the song to her vocal range? She's not the only one in that case, but I'll never understand the point of not being honest in this regard: not everyone sings high notes and that's okay. It's a shame because she seemed relatively at ease during the verses, a lower key for the chorus wouldn't have killed the song.

-Visually, Greeks apparently had big plans which couldn't be achieved in Kiev (Austria also had that issue) and I guess it showed because their plan B was lacklustre to me. The performance began with Demy singing on a platform in front of a blue starry sky (one day someone should try counting how many stagings have featured that in Eurovision history :lol:), which quickly turned into rain and raindrops making ripples on water. During the chorus, the background turned black and red with white sparks, and then progressively featured golden drops (?) while the platform Demy was standing on rose. Two shirtless male dancers wearing tight white shorts (and apparently representing swans according to Demy) appeared next to her. During the second chorus, we got back to the blue shade: the dancers performed a choreography in a pond (or basin?) while fake splashes were simultaneously displayed on screen. The second chorus featured water current-like holograms, which then showed Demy's silhouette in water during the bridge. Fashion-wise, Demy wore a nude long split dress. She looked good. Overall though, the stage looked empty and there was nothing special to watch throughout the performance imo. It was basic and forgettable, like the song. Greeks did better in the past.

-Results-wise, I wished Greece would fail to qualify but it takes a lot for them to achieve that. 19th place in the final was definitely an amazing feat given the whole package, and seeing it surpass "Requiem" by 3pts in the juries' ranking was... :lol: GURL BYE! Personally, I think this song deserved to crash and burn in the first semi since it was just a mix of uninteresting elements imo: Poland, Israel and Germany deserved to be higher than Greece in the final. As for the controversy surrounding the exchange of points between Greek and Cypriot juries, it was simply scandalous to me: juries were alledgedly brought back to help counteract/balance televoting biases, but the truth is they didn't care this year and voted like people did. I'm not saying Cypriot juries (for instance) shouldn't be allowed to give their twelve points to Greece, it's just that it seemed very questionable to me that - from a professional, musical and artistical point of view - they were coincidentally the only ones to think Greece was the best act in the final. The whole jury voting was awful anyway. In my personal ranking, "This Is Love" is in the lower half of my mediocre section (30th-35th places). See you next guys, I don't want to hold my breath for Lisbon, but I'm always open for a surprise. :)
 

Realest

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As for the controversy surrounding the exchange of points between Greek and Cypriot juries, it was simply scandalous to me: juries were alledgedly brought back to help counteract/balance televoting biases, but the truth is they didn't care this year and voted like people did. I'm not saying Cypriot juries (for instance) shouldn't be allowed to give their twelve points to Greece, it's just that it seemed very questionable to me that - from a professional, musical and artistical point of view - they were coincidentally the only ones to think Greece was the best act in the final.

I have to disagree.
First Montenegro also gave 12 Points to Greece and Armenia at least 10. So the Cyprish Jury was not the only one who celebrated Demy. And the Next is, that Demy is very successful in Cyprus which might influence the Juryvoting. And as i mentioned before, cyprish and greek Juries dont usually exchange 12 Points, like the last 2 years proved. And the next is i think that it is alright if the Juries voted (nearly) like the Televoter, cause if not, we have the same case like Poland 14/16 or Italy 15 etc.. which will lead to more complaining.

And i have to disagree that Levina was better than Demy of Course :D :D
 
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