Monty’s Eurovision Countdown – Greece

Greece

This Is Love by Demy

Have the wheels finally come off the Greek Eurovision juggernaut? Back in 2004 Sakis Rouvas (mark 1) kick started a 10-year stint that would see Greece qualify and finish in the in the top ten in 9 out of 10 years. But since getting us all sozzled with Alcohol that was Free it’s been a bit of a long hangover of poor results which saw their first non-qualification last year. If you want to change that you could do worse than pick a young singer with a string of hits and awards under her belt. You can show you mean business too by flying her to the host country to shoot the video. They’ve flown her to Odessa though, posing her in and around the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre. Is this a false move by the Greeks? Will they remember to fly her to the right city in May?

It will be worth her while – and ours too – as this is a cracking addition to the line-up this year. It starts by fooling you into thinking it might be a ballad but ratchets up a gear for the chorus into a pop stomper, the like of which is most welcome against all the ballads the women are churning out this year. There’s nothing ground breaking here, and there are several more contemporary pop songs on show, but there’s a comforting familiarity and for the duration of its three minutes it perks me up no end. We know the Greeks can throw all the bells, whistles and shirtless wonders they can muster at their staging, so there’s every reason to hope that this will be a jolly burst of telly and a hit in the EuroClub.

My marks – 10 points