Opa (Giorgos Alkaios song)

"OPA!" (Greek: ΏΠΑ!, IPA: [ˈopa]) is a song recorded by Greek singer Giorgos Alkaios. The song was written by Giorgos Alkaios himself, Giannis Antoniou, Dimitris Hortarias, Manos Hortarias, Dionisis Sxoinas, Tolis sxoinas, Kassiani Karagioule and Stauros Apostolou. It is best known as the Greek entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, held in Oslo.[1][2]

"OPA!"
Single by Giorgos Alkaios
Released26 February 2010 (2010-02-26)
Recorded2008–2010
GenreLaïko
Length3:02
LabelFriends Music Factory
Songwriter(s)
  • Giorgos Alkaios
  • Giannis Antoniou
  • Friends (Dimitris Hortarias
  • Manos Hortarias
  • Dionisis Sxoinas
  • Tolis Sxoinas
  • Kassiani Karagioule
  • Stauros Apostolou)
Producer(s)Giorgos Alkaios
Eurovision Song Contest 2010 entry
Country
Artist(s)
Languages
Greek, English
Composer(s)
Lyricist(s)
Giannis Antoniou & Friends
Finals performance
Semi-final result
2nd
Semi-final points
133
Final result
8th
Final points
140
Entry chronology
◄ "This Is Our Night" (2009)   
"Watch My Dance" (2011) ►

The song was released by broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) on 26 February 2010 along with the other candidate songs from the national final,[3] while a digital download was released on 12 March 2010 in association with Universal Music Greece.[4]

Background

Production history

Alkaios had originally written the music to the song about two year prior, with no intention of submitting it for the Eurovision Song Contest at the time.[5] After lyricist Giannis Antoniou heard the music a year earlier, he was smitten with the song and asked Alkaios to write lyrics for it.[5] In the process, other musicians and employees from Friends Music Factory including Dionisis Schinas, Kassiani Kargiule, Dimitris Hortarias, Stavros Apostolou, Tolis Schinas, and Manos Hortarias amongst others, also wrote and contributed half of the lyrics to the song.[6] Upon completion, good friend and musician Dionysis Schinas along with Giannis Antoniou urged Alkaios to submit the song to broadcaster ERT to take part in the national final.[7] Originally only intending to be the composer of the song, Alkaios agreed to submit the song, and Schinas hand delivered the song to ERT's offices.[5] Later, it was decided that Alkaios would perform the song on stage along with "friends".[5]

Lyrical content

The entry marks the first Greek Eurovision entry since 1998 to be sung entirely in Greek.

"Opa" is a Greek interjection used to express joy or high spirits, especially when dancing.[8] According to Alkaios, 'Opa' is a happy word and just what people need in a time of trouble. The song is all about leaving the past behind and starting all over again.[5] In a world shaken by the current economic circumstance, Alkaios believes people just need to say 'Opa' and move on.[9] Pertaining to the tie of 'Opa' in the song with the current economic situation in the world, Alkaios stated:

I think Greek people want to say an 'Opa' and get out and ... you know, break a plate, and you know, very ... with dance, and feelings, and smile. Live or leave it. This is the word that we sing.[9]

National final
Main article: Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

Seven acts competed on 12 March 2010 in the Greek National Final.[10] The song was performed fourth in the final by Alkaios along with "Friends", which consisted of musicians Gogua Iakovos, Evgenios Buli, Petros Zlatkos and Anastasios Kanaridis who acted as backing vocalists and backing dancers, along with Lazos Ioannidis who plays the lyre during the song's break.[11]

At the end of voting, "OPA" was revealed as the winner.[1]
DrawArtistSongPlace[12]
1 Christos Hatzinasios "Illusion" -
2 Sunny Baltzi & Second Skin "Game of Life" -
3 Manos Pyrovolakis feat. Eleni Foureira "Kivotos tou Noe" (Noah's ark) 2
4 Giorgos Alkaios & Friends "OPA" 1
5 Yorgos Karadimos "Polemao" (I'm fighting) 3
6 Melisses "O Kinezos" (Chinese) -
7 Émigré "Touch me Deep Inside" -

Eurovision

Greece competed 13th in the second half of the first semi-final of the contest on 25 May in Oslo, Norway.[13][14] The performance in the contest differed from the one in the national final.[15] Alkaios passed the first semi-final, coming in 2nd place, behind Belgium,[16] and went on to perform in the final on 29 May 2010. In the end, Greece came 8th,[17] with 141 points, while for most of the duration of the voting, Greece was in the top 3 (and even came 1st for a while). It was the highest placing non-English song of the contest. OPA was the most popular song for the jury in the United Kingdom, being awarded the full 12 points. Following Eurovision, OPA was formally adopted by Bournemouth University in the UK as their fieldwork anthem on the excavation programme throughout June and July 2010.[18]

Track listing
  • Digital download
  1. "OPA" – 3:02

Music video

Due to economic difficulties that the national Greek television (ERT) was facing, the broadcaster was only willing to use the national final performance as the official music video for the song which was released on 19 March 2010.[19][20] Although ERT released a music video for the song from the live performance, Alkaios financed the production of another music video which was directed by Sherif Francis.[19] The music video was shot in Milos.[19]

Release history
Region Date Label Format
Greece 26 February 2010 (2010-02-26) Friends Music Factory Airplay
Cyprus
Greece 12 March 2010 (2010-03-12) Universal Music, Friends Music Factory Digital download
Cyprus

Charts
Chart (2010) Peak
position
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart[21] 37
Finnish Singles Chart[22] 20
Greek Digital Singles Chart[23][24] 4
UK Singles Chart[25] 110

Cover Versions

The Israeli Mizrahi singer Omer Adam released a version of this song in the Hebrew language in October 2010 called "Hopa".[26] The song is also a track from his debut album, Names Mimeh.

gollark: For language features you can use stuff like Babel (or TypeScript) to compile your shiny new code to ES5/6/whatever is supported by your target browsers.
gollark: The majority of the web platform™ works okay on recent browser things.
gollark: Most useful and widely-used web APIs run fine on anything newer than IE 11.
gollark: No, only if you use stupid cutting-edge stuff.
gollark: It's a good thing, though.

See also
  • Other Greek songs titled "Opa"

References
  1. Montebello, Edward (March 13, 2010). "Greece sends Giorgos Alkaios & Friends to Eurovision". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 16 March 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
  2. Escudero, Victor (12 March 2010). "Giorgos Alkaios & Friends will wave the Greek flag in Oslo". EBU. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
  3. Floras, Stella (26 February 2010). "Greece: Final songs online ahead of schedule". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 3 May 2010. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  4. https://itunes.apple.com/gr/album/opa-single/id361811520
  5. Floras, Stella (13 March 2010). "Greece: Alkaios says Opa is a happy word". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 16 March 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
  6. Staff (15 March 2010). ""Who is Who" George Alkaios & Friends Contest". ERT. Archived from the original on 14 June 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
  7. Zervas, Pavlo (26 January 2010). "Eurovision 2010 – Ο Γ. Αλκαίος μιλάει στο Music Corner!". Musiccorner.gr. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  8. Babiniotis, Dictionary of Modern Greek
  9. Vranis, Michalis (March 11, 2010). "Greece: The Alkaios and Emigre interviews". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 14 March 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
  10. Klier, Marcus (12 March 2010). "Tonight: National final in Greece". ESCToday. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
  11. Neophytou, Tony (March 10, 2010). "Giorgos Alkaios eyes Eurovision win". London Greek Radio. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  12. Kaziri, Ghassan Al (March 15, 2010). "60,000 votes cast; three songs tied". Oikotimes.coom. Archived from the original on March 25, 2010. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
  13. Staff (23 March 2010). "Greece Appears 13th on the ESC Stage News". ERT. Archived from the original on April 19, 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
  14. Klier, Marcus (7 February 2010). "Semi final allocation for Oslo determined". ESC Today. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
  15. Staff (18 March 2010). Ο Γιώργος Αλκαίος ετοιμάζει εκπλήξεις (in Greek). MAD TV. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  16. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=18323&_t=Exclusive%3A+The+Semi-Final+results!
  17. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=18063&_t=GERMANY+WINS,+SEE+FULL+RESULTS!
  18. http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/caah/landscapeandtownscapearchaeology/durotriges-research-page-and-dig-diary.html
  19. Staff (20 March 2010). "Ο Γιώργος Αλκαίος πληρώνει για το clip του" (in Greek). MAD TV. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA5rWZ-S4lQ
  21. Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart
  22. Finnish Singles Chart
  23. Billboard Greek Digital Singles Chart
  24. Greek Digital Singles Chart Archived 2010-12-31 at the Wayback Machine
  25. UK Singles Chart
  26. Omer Adam - Hopa
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