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You're my lover, undercover - We would like to share this newest 12points.tv CD review: Helena Paprizou's compilation album. 

Helena Paparizou - Greatest Hits & More (2011) ****

It´s December, so it is litterally raining compilation albums, and when it comes to Eurovision artists this is an excellent oportunity to take notice of the essentials.

I cannot say it anyway else: Helena Paparizou's work is quite something! For her early work, when she was still part of Antique, you'd have to get your hands on another compilation CD, the Very Best (2004), that is quite pleasant too. Greatest Hits & More, that was released recently, comes as a very nice follow up to complete your La Paparizou collection!

Let's start with the More-CD. The first track, Baby It's Over, impresses. What a delightful song with such a lot of European hit potential, that it might even compensate for the Greek deficits. Play the song once and it will be in your head for at least three days. And if this for any reason wouldn't work for you (impossible if you ask me), then there still is Love Me Crazy, which is so eey-eey-eey great and just as easily gets stuck in your head.

The compilation part of this album presents us 40 of Helena's hits. Well, there was some cheating going on there, as not all songs really made it to the charts. Where Antique was a bit predictable now and then, Solo-Helena sounds grown-up like a pop diva should: always dramatical (she is Greek after all), sometimes luciously bombastic, sometimes rocky, sometimes in English, sometimes in Greek and sometimes just a sweet little nothing inbetween. It seems rock is very popular in Greece though, in my ears that part seems a bit empty and dated. My advise: Helena, more europop, less rock, please!

But anyway, Helena offers quite some variation on these three discs, showing she is the real pop diva from Greece with still quite some potential for the rest of Europe. As far as I'm concerned she should do a Carola or a Charlotte and just make a comeback on the Eurovision stage. She also has her roots in Sweden too after all. Just get some advice from the other two ladies...

Helena, come back!!!

News Round-up of the day. With the song Second Change Peter Andersen (Denmark 2007) tries, for the second year, to get a ticket to Eurovision in the Swiss national selection.

This year final of Eurovision Song Contest has been nominated for a price in the category 'Best Entertainment' at the German TV Awards! Our favorite show is competing in this category with 'I'm a celebrity - Get me out of here' and 'Let's dance'. On the 2nd of october the German TV awards will take place in Cologne Coloneum.

++ Greek videos online ++  Yet another 12points party coming up ++ Finally Christer Björkman managed to get Paparizou to MF! ++ ..

One of the traditions in Melodifestivalen is, that a new version of the previous year's winning song will be performed by another artist. Expressen, a Swedish newspaper revealed today, that Popular will be sung by no one less than ESC 2005 winner Helena Paparizou.

News Round-up of the day. Five final acts selected in Eirodziesma's first semi final tonight.

All details known can be found here. As far as known right now there will not be a stream to watch the program in the rest of Europe.

The selection for the Nationaal Songfestival in the Netherlands keeps buzzing. Dries Roelvink, a popular singer that did not get selected, is disapointed that the selection exsists completely of artists that have not proven themselves yet, he stated in Weekend magazine this weekend. Some of the other not selected acts try to get something positive out of this anyway, by organising a concert together on 19 February in Almere.

News Round-up of the day, today on Finland's national day, ilkar.blogspot.com reminds me of a real ESC diva.

If you manage to reach the top of the album charts in 6 decades, you are a real star! Katri Helena, responsible for the 1979 and 1993 Eurovision entries for Finland did manage to do this. Read more here.