If, as a foreigner like me, you were living here in 2005, you must have heard the song by Elena Paparizou “My Number One” hundreds of times. It was being played everywhere. Not my taste in music but you could tell it was a catchy tune and was to be Greece’s entry into the Eurovision contest held in Kyiv that year. She won! The country went mad! Was there a national holiday? I can’t remember but Elena is singing at the Open Theatre in Kalamata on August 5 this summer.

Eurovision is not really for me and has turned into something …….”different”, but the year before saw Greece succeed in an area that very much does interest me- football! In 2004 the Euro’s were held in Portugal. The team were not expected to do that well. Yes, they had some good players and a German coach who got them well organised but expectations were not that high. Against all the odds, they won, 1-0, the winning goal coming from a corner! Against the host nation! The celebrations over this victory way exceeded those the following year over Elena’s success. I remember watching the game at Enigma and on the final whistle, jumped into my car and joined the convoy slowly driving along the beach road, all honking their car horns as loudly as possible. Chaos everywhere- flags, fireworks and just pure joy and pride from the local population. I ended up Greek dancing in To Steki- I never dance at Panigiria, I’m too shy but that night I got carried along on the wave of celebration. A night I’ll never forget.

And then a month later, Athens hosted the Olympic games. And again, against all the odds (according to foreign observers – “They’ll never be ready in time”, “It’s going to be a complete shambles”), the event ran like clockwork and was another great success and source of national pride. I personally didn’t go to Athens that summer but have been to the Olympic stadium to see Roger Waters perform “The Wall” and to the Tae Kwon Do centre to see Morrissey- music rather than sport.

Great years to be living here, creating memories I’ll never forget.

I wonder what Elena’s performance  will be like and when she gets to “My Number One” it’s sure to bring the house down, even after all of these years.

Mat