What is “Opa”? It is a word or pronouncement of celebration; the celebration of life itself.
The 55th Eurovision song contest took place yesterday in Norway’s capital, Oslo. “Giorgos Alkaios & Friends” were Greece’s representatives and the song’s name was “Opa”, a word that according to my experience is the second best known to the non-Greek world. I am sure you all know which one is the first, me I cannot name it or at least I cannot write it. Of course I watched the programme as I do every year, the only difference is that I was not the only person watching it. Reporting from Greece now and not having watched Eurovision in Greece for the last 5 years I noticed how Thessaloniki’s streets were absolutely empty; families and friends were gathered at their homes ordering pizzas or suvlakia accompanied with beers, wine and refreshments waiting for the big show to begin.
I reckon that this was a great excuse for Greek people not to go out on a Saturday night and have something exciting and different to do. Greeks used to go out almost every day of the week but now with the economic crisis going on, their “going out budgets” are getting tighter and tighter. Nevertheless, ordering food cannot be avoided. We have to spend some money somehow, it’s a necessity, it’s our culture. I should mention though that Greeks instead of quitting smoking on the face of the crisis, they make their own cigarettes. Well, something is something, at least they smoke less and they spend less; therefore, the advantage is double, both 'healthwise' and 'pocketwise'. So, everybody watched but they seem not to care so much about the results. This is somewhat weird and at the same time makes total sense. It seems to me that Greeks are starting to realise the presence of the economic crisis and start not to care so much about small things in life.
This is sad. When I first came in Greece I thought that the ability of Greeks to “Opa” against all big issues would never disappear, but here I am, living trough this transition. One more example is that yesterday morning I was at the centre of Thessaloniki just having a walk around the shops and I noticed that almost nobody was shopping, people were just walking, having a look, well just like me. It is sad but it’s kind of empathetic because currently neither am I at the best of the situations, to be honest. So, it seems like Greece’s good old times are dyeing slowly. Greek people are trying to get on time at the happy hours of some cafeterias to have their coffees or else they prefer having them at patisseries because it’s cheaper, or we go out for a beer and order just once and not twice as we used to do in the past. People are thinking now. Well, there is no choice actually.
So, I am not sure whether Greeks still “Opa” or not but they are certainly there for each other; and I am referring to friends and family who are always there to support one another and I don’t mean financial help, sometimes emotional support is more important. The rest of Europe though, definitely went “Opa” since we managed to get the 8th place at the Eurovision Song Contest and we are really proud of the result since we were the one and only country that promoted their song only to 3 European countries, again due to financial problems and to not provoke any bad comments from the foreign press. So the only countries that we actually advertised “Opa” were Portugal, Belgium and the United Kingdom. And I must note that Giorgos Alkaios is half Portuguese, that’s why Portugal gave us 8 points. On the other hand, Belgium and UK gave us the generous 12 points and Cyprus of course 12 points, but that’s absolutely expected each and every year. I note here that many Greeks live in Belgium and UK, but I am so grateful to UK because my 3 year living experience there has convinced me how much they love us and our land. Or just Greece’s weather and beaches but it’s ok, anyway.
It sounds logical, therefore, to say that if we had the opportunity for a better and bigger promotion of the song we might have been the winners, or at least we would have scored second or third country on the final results. Another major aspect for which we should be proud is the fact that we went on the contest with an absolutely traditional song despite the European sounds of the rest of the contestants and we managed to get very good results because believe me the whole “mpouzouki” sound that we had there is not familiar at the rest of Europe. Well, we thought it would have touched Turkish people in a way, but we were wrong since we only got 3 points from Turkey’s vote. I will not comment further on that since I don’t know if I can comment in an appropriate way. Not to mention F.Y.R.O.M. that of course gave us no votes. So, if your neighbours are not with you, what do you expect then?
And then came the Bulgarian results, equally disappointing, oh come on.. that is so much unfair, Bulgarians make their living through Greek businesses that moved out there in order to save on manufacturing and salaries; we got only 5 points from them. It’s a matter of culture after all.. Bulgarians are the ones that announced travel advice for their people not to travel in Greece, a few days before, due to the terrorist attacks in Athens. Well, I am happy with Albanians who finally recognised the Greek hospitality, how we let them live in our land, how we offer them jobs, education and a better life in general. It seems like they do not want to take us anymore, it’s more like we are friends now, they are part of our everyday life. So thank you Albania for the 12 points. It really is touching.
I almost forgot to mention that we got no points from Georgia and Russia and God knows how many of them live here. This kind of actions is unforgivable, indeed. It’s like when they know you are sinking and they want to push you down even more to make sure that you cannot breathe. I don’t know how to name this kind of behaviour; I guess it is jealousy coming out from bad characters and/or societies, therefore, unkind cultures. Yet, taking into account all the above we truly are proud of George Alkaios and all the team behind him as well as of our country’s sounds.
I believe though that Germany, despite the unfortunate political response to the economic crisis, really deserved to be the winner. The song was hilarious, fun and lively and very much alike to British pop, and having spent many years overseas I am sure that it sounded like fun to every European. Additionally her voice was something else than the ordinary. What I didn’t enjoy is her outfit and the whole presentation of the song. Maybe Germany wanted to send a message to us Greeks? Maybe promoting simplicity was to make us seem the bad ones or to make us feel bad? Oh, but come on we would never go to a European contest like that. We are stylish people, we may cut from marketing expenses but we would never cut out from clothes and dances. We are “Opa” people, despite the odds..