Sakis Rouvas concert in Athens at the old Olympic Stadium

“Sakis the Great” entertained his fans at the old Olympic Stadium in Athens.
Imagine a soft, mild Greek night, with the moon shining bright above your head, in the open air historical Kallimarmaron Stadium, with approximately 40.000 people singing backing vocals. I knew that Sakis Rouvas was a one of the most popular artists in Greece but yesterday fully understood what that really meant. Me, together with thousands of Greek fans, was the final evidence. Sakis must a modern version of Alexander the Great, as I see it from my Finnish-Swedish perspective.

Sakis is not the greatest singer but a professional, charming and hardworking entertainer. He knows how to treat his people and the audience is eating out of his hand. Everybody seems to know all the lyrics, and as soon as Sakis is doing some extra 'shake-shake-moves' the reaction is immediate and close to hysterical. Despite this he did not sing his previous 2004 ESC entry “Shake It”.

The older songs seem to be the most popular ones and it’s also in these songs his voice is as its' best. During a rock-cover-potpourri and a tribute to Michael Jackson his voice is rather flat and gives a feeble impression. I have always emphasized that Greek songs in Greek language are better than English versions but this night I found one exception. The Greek version of the this year’s ESC entry “This Is Our Night” was a disappointment to me. The energy and the beat I remembered from Moscow were not there at all.


As often happens in huge concerts, the sound quality is not always the best. I also wished that the band would have been more visible, instead of putting them far behind on the stage. Sakis was now and then backed up with up to 20 dancers or more, but most of the work was done by him. He changed clothes once in the middle and all in all the concert lasted for 1,5 hours but felt longer due to the high tempo. Personally I found the first part better and more intense.


Sakis is a dearly loved artist among every generation. All young boys want to be a Sakis and that might result in an interesting future development of the Greek society and new ideal of a man. I also lenrnt that the female fans are called “Rouvitsa”. So far I haven’t heard what the male fans are called but one thing is sure - they are as many as the women.



My friend Fotis who is the Chief editor for www.oikotimes.com


Photos by Fotis Konstantopoulos and Lilian