Thalassa (band)

Thalassa represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. They performed the song "Mia Krifi Evesthisia".

History

Musician Yiannis Valvis and singer Dionisia Karoki formed the group expressly for the Eurovision Song Contest. After the national final, many artists complained that the victory of the group was a fraud. Nevertheless, they went on to compete after shooting two video clips (they stated that the first was too ethnic).

During the rehearsals in Birmingham, Yiannis Valvis had several fights with the director of the show and was kicked out of the arena and banned from re-entry. He watched the contest locked inside his hotel room with two security guards guarding his door. Thalassa performed second on the program. They gained 12 points--exclusively from Cyprus--and were ranked 20th of 25.

The group separated after the competition. Dionisia Karoki worked as a backing vocalist for many Greek stars and now teaches singing and music in a private music school. Yiannis Valvis is working as a sound engineer in the Greek radio station Best Radio.

Thalassa's one and only CD-single was released as a promo only. It contains their contest entry, two remixes of it (with vocals from a non-credited singer), and the song Kosme Cinema, which was also among the 10 songs competing to be Greece's entry in the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest. It received very poor airplay but topped the airplay chart of the Greek radio station FLY FM 89.7.

Discography

• 1998: Mia Krifi Evesthisia (promo CD single)