Sakis "shook" Istanbul, but didn't triumph in the end. Rouvas made a lasting impression with "Shake it" and Greece with 252 points came third at the 49th Eurovision Song Competition. Ukraine won first place ("Wild dance", 280 points) and Serbia and Montenegro came second ("Lane Moje", 263 points).

However Net managed to get a record in ratings when the 3 hour contest was aired live from the packed (9.000 seats) stadium of "Abdi Ipekci Arena" of Istanbul, because 1 out of two Greeks watched the Esc 2004.

According to unofficial records, NET's piece of the ratings, at some point reached 86,7% which means that about 3.500.000 viewers were watching the whole contest, whereas about 4.200.000 people watched even for just one minute! The people of Greek National Television wanted to organize the next Esc because it will be the 50th contest and will be a historic point in the whole institution. Unfortunately their goal was not achieved. The public television of turkey has managed to organize a fantastic show, without of course a touch of megalomania that usually characterizes whatever we organize as well.

This was probably the only time that we were unified in our support to our representative and the final outcome left a "bitter taste" to our mouths, because most Greeks felt that Sakis deserved first place. It is a fact that at Saturday night after 22:00 all the streets were deserted. Apart from the houses all the bars and restaurants had set their TV sets to NET and the Eurovision Contest, which is why the ratings were so high. Most clubs were packed right after the end of the contest and as soon as "Shake it" was on the real party started. Many D.J.s were playing "Ola kala" (= Everything is all right), which reflected the general mood of the population.

Sakis proved with "Shake it" that he is a true professional. The composer of "Shake it" was Nikos Terzis, the lyrics were written by Nektarios Tirakis, the choreography belonged to Foka Evangelino and the vocals were performed by Apostolos Psihramis, Gianna Fafaliou and Antonis Dominos (winner and finalists of the Eurostar competition).

Sakis was sparkling, rhythmic and very confident on stage of "Abdi Ipekci Arena", he got the same place as "Antique" (Esc 2001). Only this time 36 countries participated in the voting instead of 24 like other years. The Greek representatives for the first time got 5 "12 points" (Albania, Cyprus, Malta, and Rumania) and four "10 points" (Israel, Lithuania, Monaco and Turkey). The fewer points were given to us by Austria and Norway (2 points), Dane (3 points), Switzerland and Sweden (4 points) and there wasn't even one country that didn't vote for us.

Once more neighbors voted each other and we were in a rough spot because our only "neighbor" is Cyprus and the "game" was played between the northern countries. But let's not be grumpy, because Cyprus, Turkey and Serbia and Montenegro must be feeling unfairly dealt with too. The last mention, with a song more ethnic, a good singer and a very well planned appearance have proven that they could make a difference (meaning that not all the songs must be similar). The Serbs came second although they could have been first. Cyprus with 16 year old Lisa Andreas has made an amazing appearance ("Stronger every minute") and managed to gather 170 points and take 5th place (same amount of points with Sweden) while for second year running Turkey presented a memorable dance song ("For real") and managed to come 4th with 195 points. Of course a lot of people insist that a major part in the voting (televoting and sms) was played by the immigrants.

Sakis Rouvas and the rest of the Greek delegation have returned last night (16/5/2004) from Istanbul and today (17/5/2004) at 20:00 are expected to give a press conference at the town hall in Athens describing what happened during their stay in Turkey. Well, see you next year in Kiev…