Concert mishaps frequently leave fans fuming. Maybe you don’t have ID to claim your tickets, or maybe the event is cancelled altogether when an artist gets sick. Thankfully for Greek Eurovision fan Panagiotis, a recent incident had a very happy ending when Belarus’ Eurovision 2018 star Alekseev stepped in to save the day.
We came across the story in the Eurovision Song Contest — Fans Club — a popular Facebook group with more than 33,000 members (including many of us here at wiwibloggs).
Panagiotis, who recently completed an Anglophone literature degree, has been a Eurovision fan for more than 15 years. Among his favourite songs is Alekseev’s Eurovision 2018 entry “Forever”. Writing in the group on Saturday, he gave a play-by-play of recent events, which we’ve pasted below.
1. You buy tickets to attend Alekseev’s concert in Odessa.
2. You go there with your friends and guards tell you, you are a foreigner, so you must pay a really huge amount of money and tickets don’t count.
3. You send a message to all possible managers and pages to complain about this awful treatment.
4. The next day you receive a message from Alekseev, asking for you to forgive him, although it’s not his fault, with a surprise of paid flights, hotels, buses, etc. for his next concert 20 days after.
5. Two days before the concert he invites you to a Ukrainian TV station as a guest and then hangs out with you for dinner in a luxurious restaurant for more than three hours, talking to you like a best friend, promising free VIP entrance in his concert. All this without nothing being his fault.
Well, for me this is the definition of a real artist!
We had a quick chat with Panagiotis afterwards to learn more.
What was your reaction when Alekseev’s team apologised and invited you to another concert?
Well, every moment spent with him could be considered as a highlight, because all of them were very special. But I think that the most powerful moment was when we gave him some presents from Greece. He reacted as a happy little child!
I saw on Facebook that you got invited on stage to sing with him. Are you a singer? Was this scary for you?
It was an amazing surprise. We were beneath the stage dancing and singing with the crowd when one of his managers came and told us “please, follow me”. When we realised that we were on stage, it was a huge surprise for us. Well, I felt a bit stressed, but you cannot be stressed for so long when you are in the same place with Alekseev. He thanked us for being there, we explained to the audience how special he is and then he told us that he would sing a remix of “Forever” specially for us, asking us to stay on stage with him. We are neither singers nor dancers, but we felt emotionally motivated by his wonderful surprise. He really celebrated our presence there!
What are some of your favourite Eurovision acts ever?
Apart from “Forever” — which will always be considered as top from the top from me — I admired many other acts like Melovin’s “Under the Ladder”, Jamala’s “1944”, Manga’s “We could be the Same”, and both acts from Helena Paparizou in the contest. Of course, I love the all-time classic entries like Vicky Leandros’ “Apres toi”, France Gall’s “Poupèe de cire, poupèe de son”, among others
Are you loving Alekseev’s generosity as much as we are? Have you ever had a bad experience at a concert — and how did it resolve? Let us know down below!
Alekseev Ukrainian singer. But he wanted to represent Belarus. Why you Europeans did not vote for him. This is a very talented singer. Vote for all nonsense. Izrael was not worthy of victory. Better Cyprus was the winner.
He’s a good guy 😀
Btw have you seen this spectacular performance? https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=539103886526929&id=676294952451885
That was so nice of him. I am so happy for the Greek fans. Alekseev is one of a kind, great artist with a great personality. Hope he will comeback to Eurovision and win it all.
That’s one of the sweetest things I’ve ever read! :’)
Great story! Thankfully, there are also these artists like Alekseev!
He’s an angel, he’s truly an angel full of kindness.
He’s the best, I mean to do that, it takes time and money and her did it without any problem. Such a good person
he*
William, The Itaka night club is in Odessa, not in Kiev.
Beautiful guy with beutiful soul, i wish he would come back to ESC one day and represents Ukraine like he always wanted:)
Alekseev deserves to be respected, he is such a great person! I’m so proud that he represented my country this year!
This really makes me look at Alekseev in a different light. He’s such a nice guy!