Greece: Dutch media refer to Stefania's staging for "Last Dance" as something impressive

Greece: Dutch media refer to Stefania's staging for
Saturday, 10 April 2021

  • Local Dutch media are speaking of Stefania's upcoming Eurovision 2021 staging for "Last Dance" as something that we've never seen before in the contest.

    One of the biggerst newspapaers in the Netherlands, De Telegraaf,  revealed that statements by Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen, Head of the organizing committee for the Eurovision Festival 2021, about  "something never seen"  on the stage of the event related to Greece.

     Journalist Katja Zwart reported that "Twan van de N ieuwenhuijzen said that, although he initially did not pay much attention to this country, he saw several videos of the rehearsals where they were trying to do something on stage that had never been done in the competition"  adding that "there are several risks"  but which, if they succeed, "will be something impressive".

    Despite not metioning specific details, the Dutch newspaper refers to speculatations that want it to be related to some element of Greek mythology: "some say that it will have something to do with Pegasus or with Atla and the Earth that he holds in his hands." 

    However, with the specific staging inclosing many risks and not easy to implement on stage the final decision has not yet been taken, with the Greek delegation continuing to carry out technical tests for the performance. With the first reactions to "Last Dance" being a reason for the Greek delegation to be optimistic about this year's particiaption and bringing back Greece to its top 10 golden years, the creative team is in full steam in order for the whole performance to go according to plan. 

     

    The Creative Team

    The creative team behind the song sees Dimitris Kontopoulos, Arcade, Sharon Vaughn on the composition team, Fokas Evangelinos as the director for the song's staging , while Ilias Kokotos completes the Greek act's supportive team. The Greek delegation this year lies in the hands of Sofia Dranidou , Head of ERT's International relations department, with Dora Cheiraki ERT's communication manαger supervising the whole project. On stage Nikos Koukakis, Markos Giakoumoglou , Kostas Pavlopoulos and Giorgos Papadopoulos are Stefania's backing dancers that we will see on stage.

    Stefania will perform 4th in the first semi final on May 18, 2021. 

     

    A few words for Stefania

    Stefania Liberakakis was born 17 December 2002 in Utrecht, also known simply as Stefania, is a Greek–Dutch singer, actress, voice actress and YouTuber.

    Stefania is no stranger to the Eurovision family! In 2016 as member of the group  Kisses she represented The Netherlands in στην Junior Eurovision 2016 performing the song  Kisses and Dancin which came 8th.

    Earlier, in 2013, Liberakakis was a contestant in the third season of The Voice Kids in the Netherlands. She joined Team Borsato after her blind audition, but was eliminated in the battle rounds. She then joined the children’s choir Kinderen voor Kinderen, which she left after two years.

    In 2018, Liberakakis released her first solo single named “Stupid Reasons”. In 2019, she released three more singles: “Wonder”, “I’m Sorry (Whoops!)” and “Turn Around”.  From 2018 onwards, she stars as Fenna in the TV-series Brugklas (English: The First Years) and the movie Brugklas: De tijd van m’n leven. She also starred in other Dutch movies, including De Club van Lelijke Kinderen (as singer) and 100% Coco New York (as Lilly).[

    In June 2019, she performed a cover of the song “Con Calma” (together with Konnie Metaxa and Ilenia Williams) at the MAD Video Music Awards, which was broadcast on Greek television.

     In July the young talented act released a new uptempo single titled 'Friday',  which was  the second ESC 2020 candidate song for Greece. 

     

    Greece in Eurovision

    Greece made its first participation in the contest  in 1974 with Marinela. Since then the country has won one time the competition, in 2005 with Helena Paparizou and her entry  My number one. Since 2004 and up to 2013 the country was one of the most successful countires in the contest, having achieved 9 times a top ten placing. In 2016 it experienced its first non qualifying results since the semi final were introduced, with Argo in Stockholm.

    In 2019 ERT opted for an internal selection and selected Katerina Duska to represent the country with her entry Better Love, which eventually finished 21st in Tel Aviv.

    Last year Stefania was internally selected to represent Greece in Eurovision 2020 with her song 'Supergi!rl'. Unfortunately the contest was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic depriving the young talented act from her journey to Rotterdam.

    News Source: Ad.nl/ Escportugal.pt