Sakis and his apology

Once upon a time there was a festival of the kits with revolting monsters, topless Centaurs, Amazons, jokers and audatious chicks. One day came a boy, played the violin and put them to sleep until the next century. And he lived well and the institution better. The fair became a  ... fairytale.

Nearly 4 million Greeks have turned an eye to Moscow on Saturday night to watch the final of Eurovision, which revealed the winner: Alexander Rimpak from Norway.

With 83.3% of Greeks viewers suporting Sakis Rouvas in Moscow, while the during the time of the the voting number of the audience hit red, reaching 88.8%. Alexander's fairytale became a nightmare for Sakis. From the seventh heaven, where he arrived with his impressive strides, he landed in seventh place. Dedikated to achieving first position from the very first day that he decided to represent Greece, Sakis Rouvas could not hide his disappointment with the outcome, and apologized that «he could not meet the expectations of the Greeks that believed in him». «I wanted to win and tried hard too» he stressed. According with the results of the second semi - finals of Thursday, that were made public yesterday, Greece was in the fourth position. The excellent stage presence of Sakis was not enough to outweigh the weakness of that song, that «disappeared» between the music superpowers.

This year the star system took it's revenge. The triumph of Norwegian Alexander Rimpak achieved more than to bring the Eurovision 2010 in the country of fjords. He marked the end of an era - where the simple and beautiful gave its place to the impressive for the eyes - but also a new beginning. Respectively, the emergence of high positions in songs such as Iceland (2nd), England (5th) and France (8th) and Bosnia (9th) has promoted the upgrading of an artistic competition that at times was connected to the sub-pop culture. The combination of selection panels and audience seems to have manage finding the right balance and kick out - if anything else - the ridicoulous entries.

«I won because I had a story to tell» said the boy with the bow to those seeking artistic «recipes» for success. The winning song «Fairytale» - combined  (according to Rimpak) the melancholy of Belarus, the country of his origin, with the joy of Norwegians and a love story. With almost 170 points away from the second Iceland, the 23 year old broke every record. Received the highest rating of all time with 387 points (immediately before the Lordi with 293).

Despite the «severe» attempts of the Mangira sisters and quite a few tv - shows, who attempted to prevent Greek public to vote for the Norwegian, the Greeks viewers and the jury voted consciencly, giving the 12 points to Andrew Lloyd Gouemper and England and 10 points to Norway.

18 MAY 2009

ELEFTHEROS TYPOS