Following months of speculation, weeks of preparation and one nationally televised song selection, Greece has finally spoken. Demy will sing “This Is Love” at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017.
Greek televoters and a panel of musical professionals reached their decision on Monday evening during “Vote For The Song”. Eight of the nine international juries ranked the song first, with Azerbaijan being the one exception.
“This Is Love”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBom9VecMKw
Filmed partly in black and white with pops of red, the music video seemed like the most complete package of the three. The song begins as a ballad but transitions into a banger driven by Demy’s energy and some light, breezy production.
It’s a tale of a woman wanting to make good on love: “There’s an echo in my head, there’s a story still unread and I need you here tonight.”
Get it, gurl.
The special programme saw Demy and her composer Dimitris Kontopoulos present their three songs — the others being “Angel” and “When The Morning Comes Around” — though neither stood up to the strength of “This Is Love”.
Earlier in the week many fans had written off “This Is Love” after a demo leaked. Thankfully the final version of the song wowed voters and jurors alike. Sometimes you do get to make a second first impression.
“When The Morning Comes Around”
A pretty pop ballad with a heavy American influence, this song has a subtle country music vibe. It builds nicely with light instrumentation — a string here, a drum tap there — giving Demy’s voice plenty of space to shine. In the video she went country western chic, wearing a stringy fluff-puff of a dress with indigenous flair. It was pink. Respect.
“Angels”
With “Angels” Demy wants you to know that with the right people next to you, you can persevere and overcome. As she sings: “Somehow we will make it, find the spell and break it…angels can fall sometimes, before they rise.” It’s a song of hope and just a tad cliché. A wise move to avoid this for Eurovision.
International jury votes
Eight of the nine juries voted for "This Is Love". Azerbaijan was the exception. #eurovisiongr #eurovisionert2017 #eurovision pic.twitter.com/Ey7Jlrj2hf
— wiwibloggs (@wiwibloggs) March 6, 2017
Interval acts
The first half of the show dragged on a bit as former Eurovision stars — including Sakis Rouvas, Ani Lorak and Sergey Lazarev — wished Demy well.
Ani and Sergey had previously heard all the songs and expressed their confidence she will slay.
"I'm sure they will do something amazing for @Demy_Official" — #eurovision alum @sergeylazarev on Greece's "Dream Team" #eurovisiongr pic.twitter.com/rZgmbbLGSS
— wiwibloggs (@wiwibloggs) March 6, 2017
Fellow Eurovision 2017 acts Hovig from Cyprus and Sunstroke Project from Moldova continued their promo tours, singing their numbers as a part of the show.
Hovig peformed “Gravity” — written by Thomas G:son — on live television for the first time…and he chose to lip-sync, which was incredibly obvious. But his dancing appears to have improved from the music video and he was really putting his back into it. Sunstroke Project, on the other hand, took a risk by singing live and it paid off — they were engaging, entertaining and full of life.
Even @Demy_Official has "sissy fangirl" moments. Love it! #eurovisiongr #eurovision pic.twitter.com/XiczANBbjr
— wiwibloggs (@wiwibloggs) March 6, 2017
During the show, we also saw several familiar faces, including Sergey Lazarev and Helena Paparizou, both of whom congratulated Demy and her team and wished them luck on the road to Eurovision.
Legendary stage director Fokas Evangelinos will now take over and dream up an amazing performance for Kyiv, which will no doubt boost Demy’s song even more. A good choice from Greece this year. Do you think it’s enough to reach their goal of a second win?
Kemal was injured (saved by his watch) and fought on – for reasons mentioned earlier – then sought treatment more than a day later.El Cid: have you seen the early-60s Hollywood fillum? Sophia Loren…… (OK, I was but a teenage boy, …..)
Heidi, The bill is in the Senate Rules Committee right now (it won't go to ballot). I apipcerate your offer and will keep you posted on what else can be done. Thanks!
everybody should focus on a favourite song to succed
this is not a place for losers to spit out hatred this is a celebration of what unites europe, if there is still something
is there?
aria
maybe you re from bulgaria
aria
u r hillaria
aria u need to get a life yea
@Ern: For a song like this, Demy and her stage director might do extremely well to rip a few pages out of Bojana’s playbook (Serbia 2015). Almost no one expected her to qualify, and she wound up 10th.
I heard that ERT is revising the song. If so, this won’t be the final version.
Truthfully, this song is very likely a top 10 finisher. All this talk about it being underwhelming or disappointing is irrelevant. At the end of the day, Greece will deliver a good show and make it into the top 10.
It probably won’t win, but that doesn’t mean it will do badly.
@Colin: My mistake. Dami and Jamala were in ESC 2016.
@Colin: Your last paragraph quite probably would make the case for San Marino to poach a reject, especially one whose international polling defied their own national result (think Loreen, Kerli, or even Gabi from Hungary, or Janice or Brooke from Malta, or whoever many people believe got a raw deal in another national contest). If I’m not mistaken, Dami Im beat Jamala in her semi at ESC 2015, but with more nations voting, Jamala won it all. And of course, there’s Robin Stjernberg, who was sent to A.C. in 2013, yet beat Yohio at MF, specially when the jury was… Read more »
This is love
More rhymes I can’t think of 🙁
Again made a rhyme above 🙂
This is love
Together we watch Dante’s cove
¯\_(°^°)_/¯
This is love
On hands we wear glove
¯\_(°^°)_/¯
This is love
Some Push become shove
¯\_(°^°)_/¯
This is love
Some white birds are dove
¯\_(°^°)_/¯
I wrote about my expectations from so called ‘dreamteam’ a lot before, now I just know this is going to be saved by renown staging. Though yeah, a Cascada’s presence made me think they’ve yet lost themselves while trying to improve on trends.
@Leaf
Maybe, though it could be, that’s what I was saying. So, some people should stop being malicious, making an obsession on those lyrics and constantly criticizing them. Of course, there had to be a rhyme with “love”, too.
Train falls from above! :p
chicken kyiv???@ Greece is number nine now.
Am I the only one who thinks Music is good, so as the singer, but lyrics are total cringe? This is Love, Rain falls from above, It is time to say goodbye? What the hell does that mean? It feels like they randomly picked words that rhyme with love.
@CookyMonzta – Has there been a case of a country taking another one’s eliminated act? Not to my knowledge, although I ask myself why. It’s an easy way to find your song if you have a late pick. Many of the artists would say yes, because they obviously wanted to be in Eurovision already. Some countries have a rule in their national finals that songs must be for their NF only, but not all of them. I don’t think San Marino does. While that scenario didn’t happen, I easily *could* have happened last year. After not winning Belarussian NF, band… Read more »
@Eaftomou Krymmeno
I don’t think it’s that deep man…… It’s Just a rhyme for love.
Love above la la la la la laaaaaaa
Instead of interpreting lyrics (of the final version of the song) just literally, let’s find some metaphorical meanings! Are we smart enough? I still think many of us are! “Rain falls from above” could point to the fact that like rain, when it falls from above, love is everywhere and also that like rain is made up of drops of water, love could bring not just tears of suffering, but also tears of joy. If the lyricists would’ve chosen “sun shines (from above)” instead of “rain falls (from above)”, would any of you have found it better? Do you think… Read more »
Just checking that I can still comment. Technical issues.
This is bad. Actually all songs were bad in my opinion. Where is Greece we all know? Like Koza Mostra in 2013.. Good luck anyway.
It is okay, a typical Eurovision song, is a something safe that might bring Greece back in final. Good luck my Greek friends!
The first two lines of the chorus are soooooooo cheesy. I wonder what the jury will say about this one though. At least the main letdown here isn’t so much the melody or the instrumental but rather the lyrics.
It doesn’t help that there’s a much better well-known dance song with the same title, on the other hand.
I’m sure Demy is fine as a singer too. This is disappointing for Greece to be honest.
“This is love, rainbows from above”, wow, just, wow. It’s not going to win an Ivor Novello any time soon, but as one of the only upbeat songs this year so far, it will stand out from the ocean of ballads. Personally I think it’s very boring and sounds a bit like a Cascada knock-off circa 2005.
So that’s what the fuss is all about? Not buying it. Honestly, I think Ralph Siegel did a much better job with “Crisalide”. Having said that, “This is love” is EXACTLY what I expected. Disposable pop that will be hyped with same over-the-top staging to distract from the empty shell. All this name dropping is just much ado about nothing. Next, please. If the remaining countries won’t step up, Italy could really be indisputable this year. Interesting because I NEVER EVER supported to number one favorite so far. But this year, the favorite has musical substance, what an absolute and… Read more »
@nostradamco: Before San Marino can make a play for poaching a national final reject of the caliber of the ones Colin mentioned, there need to be music videos or, at the very least, preparations for music videos to be produced, and none of his 3 have made videos (which quite probably could have helped their efforts in their respective national contests). Could anyone, even a recent reject, pay the fee (which, when last I heard, was €500,000)? Maybe Team Loreen or Team Kerli could probably afford it, but quite probably not Team Rasmus, because he is a rookie. Has there… Read more »
Is it just me or was the leaked version much better?
I mean “rain falls from above”
– where else is it supposed fall from? ????????????
I think about Cascada when I hear this song. The verses and the bridge are stronger than the chorus. And her voice is.. simple. This is not a winner I think. But it will qualify for sure.
Think that Demy will win Next Top Model, but I think the girl from Switzerland is better. Like last year, when Donny won, but everybody was talking about Sergey and Amir.
Come on, guys, if you really think this song can get top 10, let alone win, you’re deluded.
I think Greece wants to focus on the staging insteas of the song this year, which is actually more what eurovision has become, a staging contest. I don’t think the song is THAT bad, but yeah it sounds a bit cheap, and the expectations were too high. Anyway, it will be my guilty pleasure this year
I was at the gym and I was like okay let me listen to this song again. Honestly when the chorus kicked in I was laughing because it was so cheesy. Seriously this the country that gave us some of the best Eurovision hits. WTF happened?
For everyone who expected a different kind of song for Demy, i have to say that this kind of song is exactly her style. Almost all of her songs have love as a central theme and DON’T have greek elements ( thats for my fellow greeks that claim she should have greek ethnopop in at least one of her songs. And while i also expected a less ordinary chorus, this one is by far the best produced song from my country since 2013 and has a chance (with the always extraordinary work from renowned stage director Fokas Evangelinos) to reach… Read more »
lol sbs spoiled the announcement for our participant they posted an article before the livestream it’s Isaiah Firebrace
http://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2017/03/07/isaiah-firebrace-will-represent-australia-2017-eurovision-song-contest?cx_navSource=related-side-cx#cxrecs_s
it sucks
That awkward moment when your dream contestant presents a song that is not your cup of tea :/ Oh well good luck anyways!
@Purple Mask
I think ohi is a greek cause “ohi” means “no” in greek. And then they’d need to have had been living under a rock to not have heard of her.
Except the chorus i liked the this is love actually . In the chorus song gets a little bit cheesy but i believe that demy can elevate the song easily on eurovision stage with a good presentation and strong vocals.
As it was expected, three mediocre unispired songs by Kontopoulos. The choice of This is Love was given from the first moment. That’s why the song was leaked “by accident” some days ago, in order to see some reactions before the final and make some changes. And so they changed the “la, la, love” banality with the equally hilarious “Rain falls from above”, but with the most awkawrd way (you can hear the difference in the sound and Demy’s voice in these parts). It won’t flop, it won’t make anything really great either, imo. But the high expectations are not… Read more »
Seems like all 3 songs are Kontopolous’ weakest written songs ever. The winning song stands out between the 3, but still…. It’s not a masterpiece. He paid a lot of effort for other countries rather then his own country! Russia’s song last year was great, same for Azerbaijan 2012 (Farid). Maybe they paid him just enough money to motivate him. I’m a little disappointed I must admit. Greece 2017 is not a winner, but not the worst song either. Is just mediocre, and I’m disappointed just because of that… Coz I had big expectations for Greece this year, especially with… Read more »
I have to say I’m disappointed. I expected so much more from Demy. This is just a generic dance tune performed by a beautiful girl.
Looking at various websites, it seems like the Greek entry is getting overwhelmingly positive reviews.
Nice to see Greece return with a strong entry. It’s about time.
Hey Wiwi, Belarus just tweaked their song. It’s on their youtube page.
She’s falling down 🙁
Am I the only one who liked Angels?? Maybe it was cause of the video
@Colin: I’d rather have Mirela/BQL…
..they should have clearly won…….if someone looses televote then you have to agree with people’s choice (Sorry Janice)
@fikri: Generally or just about this song? :p
@donna: not at all! in fact i don’t feel anything.
I like it. However, let’s NOT pretend that this was a legitimate national selection. Only one of the three songs was appropriate for Eurovision. ERT knew “This Is Love” would win, and they were just going through the motions of an actual selection. As for how it will do at Eurovision, I predict Demy will make the top 10, but I’m not so sure she can win. “This is Love” is a rather safe selection for Greece, so I don’t think it has that “wow factor” we’ve seen with past winners (such as Jamala from last year). Still, I wouldn’t… Read more »
Yes but fikri are you mad at it though ?