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Concert 20th August
Ukraine: Ani Lorak in Greece
Ani's connections to Greece are in multiple levels, as not only was her act in Belgrade choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos but Shady lady was also produced by top Greek composer Dimitris Kontopoulos. Dimitris will be composing for next year's Greek participant, Sakis Rouvas. Now, Ani is working with Dimitris Kontopoulos on an English speaking album targeted to international audiences. Many labels around Europe have already expressed their interest in this cooperation, according to Ani.
During her press conference after the first semi final in Belgrade, Ani had stated that Greece and Ukraine were like brothers, especially after her successful cooperation with Fokas. "So why don't you rarely give us points?" asked Yannis Poulopoulos during their recent interview. "That is not true," Ani replied, " we have only been participating for five years and we gave points both to Sakis Rouvas in 2004 and Kalomira this year. But you should know that the type of songs Greece sends to Eurovision is not at all popular in my country. The votes these artists received were mainly due to their personal dynamics."
Ani Lorak is quite content with her second place in Belgrade as she knew all along that a second victory for Ukraine in such a short period of time, following Ruslana's victory in 2004 that is, would be rather difficult. She was proud and touched to be awarded the title of National Artist by President Viktor Yushchenko, who called her personally after the final to tell her that all Ukrainians were happy and proud with her performance and result.
Ani also spoke about Kostas Martakis, the runner up of the 2008 Greek final, and their rumoured relationship: "Kostas and I are just friends, he is already quite well known in Ukraine as are Helena Paparizou, Despina Vandi, Anna Vissi and Sakis Rouvas." Does she think that he would have achieved a better result than Kalomira, had he won the Greek final? " I can't say that" Ani says, " what I can say though is that Kostas is very popular in Eastern Europe, after participating in the Jurmala festival in 2007. Dima Bilan also started his career at this festival, where he came fourth. Martakis' song style is much closer to the style of music we listen to, so I assume he would get more points from these countries. İ can't say what would happen though with countries that traditionally vote for Greece."
Would Ani consider returning to the Eurovision Song Contest one day? " I don't think so" she says " as I am not the kind of person who likes to do the same thing twice. But then ..... never say never!" she concludes.
Greek fans will have the opportunity to watch Ani perform her Shady Lady once more, later next month at the Palais des sports, in the heart of Thessaloniki.
Information on tickets :0030 2310 232307-8, Chalkaion 11, Thessaloniki.
Many thanks to Giannis Dangkaris for the information.
Related polls
- Jury vote, do you agree?
- Jury vote only in the final or in the semis as well?
- What mixture of televote and jury vote do you think is the best?
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I don`t lie to you (what is the use of it???) When Elena visited Moscow Kikorov met her and he accompanied her in Russia. It`s true. I saw a program where they were together. Of course he didn`t promote her as he did with Koldun or Lorak. But he helped her when she was in Moscow. It doesnt mean that it is his success but nevertheless he helped her somehow.
As for Ani`s accent I agree but it is not only her problem!!! at least she tries to speak English while Alehno and Bilan couldn`t say anything. Unfortunately all ukr. entries were very weak with English. Only Tina speaks rather fluently.
Maybe you have some political problems but Turkey and Greece are similar. so your musical markets are similar.
no he didn't. don't lie to me.
And he didn't promote Anna Vissi. They've just met there once when Anna met Bilan whom was the artist that Kirkorov promoted.
Helena got these 4pts because Russians voted for it and not because of Kirkorov and his cheap words.
Karolina has to fix her English accent and learn English first in order to be popular in Europe. Still that's not only the key to success.
in my country?
And Greece hasn't voted for Turkey since 2006 (3p that year)..so what close relations are u talking about?
You are closed related countries (Armenia Turkey and Greece). You have much in common that`s why it is easier for your singers to be popular in your countries. For ex. russian and polish singers are much more popular in Ukraine than armenian. BECAUSE we are not close related. that`s why Sertab is popular in your country coz the difference between your countries isn`t very big.
I didn`t say that Kirkorov promote Helena as Agurbash or Koldun or Lorak. He promoted her as well as Anna Vicci. Kirkorov simply accomponied Helena everywhere in Moscow in all tv-programes and always said VOTE FOR GREECE! WE SHOULD GIVE GOOD POINTS TO ELENA!!! the same he did with Anna Vicci. Of course he didn`t support her as he supported Agurbash BUT nevertheless he helped Elena to achieve those 4 points from Russia.
I didn`t say that somebody should care about Lorak. I just said that it was natural that Lorak wasn`t so popular in your country. Maybe in future she`ll be popular maybe not... who knows?...
Diff you're narrow minded saying that Sirusho had success in Greece because Armenians and Greeks are brothers. Sertab is popular in Greece and had a #1 hit there, same for Helena, Sakis and Kalomira in Turkey.
About Kirkorov, he didn't do anything for Helena. Helena didn't need any fake promoters like other artists cough cough. So what if he said that she was the Greek entry? That's not promotion. Kirkorov only cared about the turkey Agurbash because he got money to do that plus Belarus & Russia are known friends LOL
Also to clear it up to ur mind, i didn't say Lorak is not famous in Greece therefore she's a bad artist. Please make up your mind. Even if she's not know there, it doesn't mean anything. WHo cares about her?
2Candyman
Kirkorov promoted Helena. I saw one program and he said that Elena would represent Greece. She sang a song and they spoke about smth... he promoted her as well as he did with Anna Vissi.
As for unpopularity Ani in Greece. I don`t care ! if you think that if Ani doesn`t popular in Greece it means that she is bad you are mistaken. She is very professional she looks amazing and has a powerful voice. As for popularity Sirusho in Greece I also dont care. The main reason of it - it`s that fact that you are all brothers and sisters = armenians greeks turks azerbaijans...
You're wrong. He didn't promote her and he didn't even like her because she was a rival to awful Belarussian turkey called Agurbash whom HE WAS promoting HER!
Not only Russians, but all ppl can't be influenced by this kind of cheap promo. You see Russians ain't the best race in the world or have the best taste.
Kirkorov organized the whole promo tour of Paparizou in Russia.He even was present at the press conference he organized for her. He did the same with Anna Vissi. But you are right in one thing he didint organize it well because Russian people are not stupid, they have a taste , and no one can FORCE them to vote for a country.
I really hope that from next year Kirkorov will STOP promoting Greek singers because first of all Greeks dont appriciate it and secondly it is opvius that he cant MAKE people vote for what he wants.
But NEVERTHELESS you should be thankful for Kirkorov because he is the only one person who supports Greece. He always SAYS that GREECE is a very good country with good singers... etc. so 4 points from Russia to Elena was mostly because of him.
OMG!
thankful of 4pts? for god's sake. Helena had the best entry in 2005 and she was clearly the best. plus, she visited Russia as part of her promo tour and there was NO KIRKOROV.
If Kirkorov was that strong to influence the voting, Russia would have voted for Greece with high pts and Greece would have given 12 to Ukraine this year.
And so what if Greece is a beautiful country? |this is about music! well some countries don't want to understand that..
[i[Kirkorov said that he showed SHADY LADY to his greek friends and they were impressed because it was a mega hit according to their opinion
OMG u always say "He said" and He said bla bla bla
is this reliable? and i;m saying that dima bilan is a transexual person. see?
As for Ruslana.
Kirkorov didn`t help Ruslana. Actually they have very difficult relationships. Because in 2004 Kirkorov asked Ruslana to make a duet but she refused and it insulted him. Later he asked Sakis and he agreed. Actually 2004 was the only one year when Kirkorov didn`t go to Eurovision because he couldn`t in view of his problems with his ex-wife and Yulia Savicheva(Russia2004) had her own producer she didn`t need Kirkorov. And nobody wanted his support. After that accident Ruslana and Kirkorov aren`t friends at all. Actually Ruslana wasn`t popular in Russia at all before Eurovision she didn`t sing in russian and she didn`t loose anything.
As for Kirkorov
I don`t like Kirkorov because he and Angelicka Agurbash(Belarus2005) said that GreenJolly(Ukraine2005) was a complete disaster and they are horrible etc... I agree it was a huge mistake BUT I`m sorry you are a famous person you should be polite (at least). But he helped Ani so I am thankful for him at least for that support.
But you should be ready if Sergey Lazarev isn`t go or if he refused from Kirkorovs support Kirkorov will support Greece in ESC2009 because both Sakis and Kostas are his friends (at least he says it everywhere. And before your preselection to ESC2008 he said that if Kostas would represent Greece he would help Ani and Kostas (both).
As for Tina
Actually the main her problem was lack of money. That year in 2006 the government didn`t support Eurovision and she wasn`t so rich as Ruslana was that`s why she couldn`t promote herself as much as Ruslana could. Ani was luckier the government paid for everything.
But NEVERTHELESS you should be thankful for Kirkorov because he is the only one person who supports Greece. He always SAYS that GREECE is a very good country with good singers... etc. so 4 points from Russia to Elena was mostly because of him.
Guys u see the one side well let me tell u that no entry from other countries has been promoted (at Greece)more than the ones Kirkorov is behind:
2005 / Belarus - 2006 /Bilan - 2007/Koldun - 2008/Lorak
(Ruslana was promoted alot here also before the 2004 esc but i dont know if Kirkorov had helped her.....).
So he has Greek friends with power at media - tv channels and is able to promote his singers (i remember at 2006 Bilan was EVERYWERE and at the biggest tv talent show which Kate Ryan was going to appear....she DIDNT and we saw Bilan...ALL that before the contest...and yes a friend of his was at the reality team...).At the end he doesnt do a favour mostly if we take inmind the pts we got and the ones we gave..... 
Plus ofcourse we are thankful to the choreographer Kalomira had which is Albanian(an Fokas student....!) .
Its different though having a choreographer which has 2 wins at ESC and 2 second places (one 7th with Koldun).
Finishing as i have wrote at a previous msg for me Ani deserved even winning(i knew she would had end top3) now if she would had manage that with another choreographer JUST think were Tina maybe could had ended at 2006 if she had Fokas(imo its easy to guess alot higher cause she had very good package for eurovision ALSO).Its a tv-show and what people see is IMPORTANT alot might(after seeing the performances LOTSSSSSSS of times..) say well it was simple ok the point is what u felt FIRST seeing them as most of the voters did and Ani had TOP3 Written arround her.
He has. Before preselection to Eurovision. Kirkorov said that he showed SHADY LADY to his greek friends and they were impressed because it was a mega hit according to their opinion.
Because Kirkorov has a lot of friends in Greece
That's not true. Another lie of Mrs Shady Lady?
Yes. I didn`t know it. In Ukraine a person who writes music is a composer and who writes lyric is a poet.
Phew, ty Yana, that explains it!
Mina and GIFF dont argue because in Europe and ex-soviet countries the word "producer" has a different meaning. In Europe producer is the person that has everything to do with music of a cd of an artist (the songs, the sound, the lyrics, the production) In ex-soviet countries we call "producer" the person that takes care of the image, the pr , the press something like a manager. So you are both right in a way. Kontopoulos is NOT her producer according to the meaning the word has in ex- soviet countries but he is her producer according to the meaning the word has in Europe.
Because Kirkorov has a lot of friends in Greece. And they could help him. Maybe that guy helped Ani but he is definetely not Ani`s producer even if he wrote Shady Lady.
DIFF,
are we playing with words here? I don't know if he wrote the song and I don't have any proof for it BUT why would the song be recorded in Greece if her producer wasn't Kontopoulos? Doesn't Ukraine have recording studios or is Greece a neighbour so they didn't have to travel far? I mean..come on..be realistic.
I want to hear from her that Kontopoulos is her producer. And of course I want to hear that Kontopoulos wrote SHADY LADY. Only when I hear it I will agree with you.
Yes. I know that Shady lady was recorded in Greece. It doesn`t mena anything. Now she works with him - yes! But it doesn`t mean that he is her producer. He is just a composer. Maybe he can write good songs. That`s the only one reason why she decided to ask him for new songs. BUT it doesn`t mean that he is her producer.)))
If even Kontopoulos wrote a song for her (but he didn`t) it doesnt mean that he is her producer
The fact that he is her producer has been mentioned before, this article isn't the first time. Besides, Shady Lady was recorded in Greece (fact) and they're working together again on her international album..what more proof do you want?
If even Kontopoulos wrote a song for her (but he didn`t) it doesnt mean that he is her producer.
PLUS do u believe Kirkorieva could write a song as "shady lady" or any other song??ITS known that Kontopoulos wrote the song and that Ani is hopping for some more songs from him...!!!
Please show me the proof of those words...if it is so really why that man didn`t do anything before Eurovision?
As far as i know Kalomira had an Albanian chorographer (that is what oiko wrote) and she NEVER talked about Albania as Ani did about Greece
If he was as famous as Fokas is in Eurovision and if her producer was also Albanian, I'm sure she would
Greek producer???
Are you kidding? Ani Lorak doesn`t have a producer. Kirkorov (half bulgrian-half armenian. who lives in Russia) is not her producer. He just helped her. Ani is not a new singer. She is for 15 years on the stage.
Read the above article carefully and you'll see who the producer was 
..and that's why Shady Lady was recorded in Greece.
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