Greece

This Is Our Night Sakis Rouvas

"We can do it, just wait and see..."

Eurovision is often accused of being a triumph of style over substance, and there is plenty of evidence to back up the claim. For a start, it has no self-avowed purpose other than to entertain, and while that doesn't require the producers or the audience to check their brains in at the arena door, the contest makes no claims to greatness, least of all musical. The fact that most of the people who watch it are looking to be entertained probably explains why many songs that might otherwise lend the contest a modicum of credibility either never make it that far or tend to be overlooked if they do in favour of something more germane. Which is not to say that such songs intrinsically have no value, or that no effort goes into them; on the contrary, the trashiest numbers can be some of Eurovision's most highly choreographed and most heavily promoted. That, though, only reinforces the contest's reputation - which will be cemented further in Moscow by the Greek entry, This Is Our Night.

Presumably with more planning per square metre and a budget higher than some of its less affluent competitors, This Is Our Night is set to explode onto the stage at the Olympic Arena and burst onto screens throughout Europe with all of the energy its synth-heavy production and plucked performer Sakis Rouvas can muster. Exhibiting the workmanlike values and ambition of every club anthem ever, the song is, I imagine, meant to tap into the average audience's love of anything upbeat and personally engaging when presented to them in the virile form of Greek man. The biggest metrosexual in the contest and one of its least naturally talented where singing is concerned, Sakis is a coiffeured, calculated means to an end. He's buff, he does backflips, and he has the ability to distract you from the blatant shortcomings in the songs he is selling through sheer force of performance alone. This is of course the whole point, but it makes him about as programmed as the material he is given to work with.

To be fair, the fact that This Is Our Night has nothing to do with real music hardly singles it out for criticism in a forum like Eurovision, and cynicism will never negate its appeal. Someone in a studio pressing buttons can push a lot of other people's, especially if that's exactly the kind of thing they expect from the contest. I don't doubt the song will deliver Greece yet another decent placing either, although its omnipotence may be diluted come the final by juries wielding influence other than the purely sexually motivated. Low-cut denims and a hint of six-pack should count for little if the song has to stand up on its own two feet, since it exists within a range of about four notes. A song doesn't have to have complex vocals or layered orchestration to earn its place in the line-up of an annual music contest whose remit extends no further than providing seven hours of colourful diversion, but This Is Our Night is the perception of Eurovision in microcosm. The triumph of style over substance has a new name, and that name is Sakis Rouvas.