CYPRUS – Conflicted reports about Eleni Foureira’s participation in the replacement sow EUROVISION: EUROPE SHINE A LIGHT presented in the Greek media. After the broadcast of the show on May 16th, Greek Twitter went on fire as they were all anticipating to see Eleni on their screens as media reported. After all, Helena Paparizou sent her message in the show.
The confusion was made in the process: Greek media informed the public that Helena Paparizou and Eleni Foureira will join the show sending their support message through the EUROVISION HEROES section of the show. What most of us didn’t understand was that this feature doesn’t include performance (as Mans, Loreen and other Eurostars did).
Indeed the organisers included Helena Paparizou in the show as he only Eurovision winner for Greek sent her message throughout Europe and Australia. Immediately the following Monday, Greek media stressed the fact that the organisers skipped the message by Eleni Foureira.
This is true. NPO who along NOS and AVROTROS organise the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 confirmed two things: First, that Eleni Foureira did submit a video message and second that she was never part of the performances.
Speaking to oikotimes exclusively (upon our request) organization representative explained: We requested and received several short video messages and statements from different former winners and ESC-artists for a special sequence in the Europe Shine a Light show. To ensure the broadcast lasted no more than 2 hours it was sadly impossible to use all the statements we received and some former participants like Eleni, unfortunately, could not be included. We are really sorry about that. For your information: Only video-messages were affected, no special performances or songs were removed.
