Cast your mind back to when there was no free language rule. Two, maybe three countries could sing in English, and there was a plethora of tongues to delight any polyglot.
In 1981 we had the first occasion where two – yes, two – songs were sung in Greek. Cyprus made their début but Greece had been doing their stuff for a few years. Today’s birthday boy Γιάννης Δημητράς/Yiannis Dimitras was the Greek performer, along with the young Sofia Houndra on the piano. Yiannis finished eighth, which was a common occurrence in those days. Greece finished higher before, but didn’t do better than eighth until 1992. If you’ve not heard this song before (where have you been?), you’ll enjoy it’s simple quality.
Yiannis is 70 today.
Χρόνια πολλά Γιάννη!