Opa (Giorgos Alkaios song)

"OPA!" (, ) is a song recorded by Greek singer Giorgos Alkaios. The song was written by Giorgos Alkaios himself, Giannis Antoniou, Dimitris Hortarias, Manos Hortarias, Dionisis Sxoinas, Tolis sxoinas, Kassiani Karagioule and Stauros Apostolou. It is best known as the Greek entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, held in Oslo. 

The song was released by broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) on 26 February 2010 along with the other candidate songs from the national final, while a digital download was released on 12 March 2010 in association with Universal Music Greece.

Background

Production history
Alkaios had originally written the music to the song about two year prior, with no intention of submitting it for the Eurovision Song Contest at the time. After lyricist Giannis Antoniou heard the music a year earlier, he was smitten with the song and asked Alkaios to write lyrics for it. In the process, other musicians and employees from Friends Music Factory including Dionisis Schinas, Kassiani Kargiule, Dimitris Hortarias, Stavros Apostolou, Tolis Schinas, and Manos Hortarias amongst others, also wrote and contributed half of the lyrics to the song. Upon completion, good friend and musician Dionysis Schinas along with Giannis Antoniou urged Alkaios to submit the song to broadcaster ERT to take part in the national final. Originally only intending to be the composer of the song, Alkaios agreed to submit the song, and Schinas hand delivered the song to ERT's offices. Later, it was decided that Alkaios would perform the song on stage along with "friends".

Lyrical content
The entry marks the first Greek Eurovision entry since 1998 to be sung entirely in Greek.

"Opa" is a Greek interjection used to express joy or high spirits, especially when dancing. According to Alkaios, 'Opa' is a happy word and just what people need in a time of trouble. The song is all about leaving the past behind and starting all over again. In a world shaken by the current economic circumstance, Alkaios believes people just need to say 'Opa' and move on. Pertaining to the tie of 'Opa' in the song with the current economic situation in the world, Alkaios stated:

National final

Seven acts competed on 12 March 2010 in the Greek National Final. The song was performed fourth in the final by Alkaios along with "Friends", which consisted of musicians Gogua Iakovos, Evgenios Buli, Petros Zlatkos and Anastasios Kanaridis who acted as backing vocalists and backing dancers, along with Lazos Ioannidis who plays the lyre during the song's break.

At the end of voting, "OPA" was revealed as the winner.

Eurovision
Greece competed 13th in the second half of the first semi-final of the contest on 25 May in Oslo, Norway. The performance in the contest differed from the one in the national final. Alkaios passed the first semi-final, coming in 2nd place, behind Belgium, and went on to perform in the final on 29 May 2010. In the end, Greece came 8th, with 141 points, while for most of the duration of the voting, Greece was in the top 3 (and even came 1st for a while). It was the highest placing non-English song of the contest.
OPA was the most popular song for the jury in the United Kingdom, being awarded the full 12 points. Following Eurovision, OPA was formally adopted by Bournemouth University in the UK as their fieldwork anthem on the excavation programme throughout June and July 2010.

Track listing
Digital download
 "OPA" – 3:02

Music video
Due to economic difficulties that the national Greek television (ERT) was facing, the broadcaster was only willing to use the national final performance as the official music video for the song which was released on 19 March 2010. Although ERT released a music video for the song from the live performance, Alkaios financed the production of another music video which was directed by Sherif Francis. The music video was shot in Milos.

Release history

Charts

Cover Versions
The Israeli Mizrahi singer Omer Adam released a version of this song in the Hebrew language in October 2010 called "Hopa". The song is also a track from his debut album, Names Mimeh.

See also
Other Greek songs titled "Opa"

References

External links
 Official music video - YouTube
 Giorgos Alkaios & Friends Official promotional website

Category:2010 singles
Category:Eurovision songs of 2010
Category:Eurovision songs of Greece
Category:2010 songs