A place in the limelight
Cypriots stormed the Greek version of talent show X Factor. We speak to the man who came second, and who has also penned this year’s Cyprus Eurvision entry
One day you’re pretty much an unknown. The next, practically all of Greece, Cyprus and beyond knows who you are. There are pictures of you on the internet, videos of you singing on You Tube, and people excitedly hounding you for autographs. Add to that a facebook profile boasting an unbelievable 17,000 fans while compliments topped off by more compliments constantly poor through. How does that happen? Guess you’ve just got to have the X-Factor.
It was the night of the Greek talent show final and, in common with thousands of others in Greece and Cyprus, I was glued to the couch. I was hooked, and for thirteen Friday nights the TV was my one and only friend. Exactly one month later, I’m glued to another couch as one of the biggest stars of the show, Nikolas Metaxas, sits with me for a casual coffee and chat.
I’m not usually like this when it comes to game shows, but this was different. I had a strong feeling that either Nikolas Metaxas or Loukas Giorkas would come first, but which Cypriot would it be? Both were the golden boys of the show, both had never been voted off by the crowds, both were the pride and joy of Katerina Gagaki, the judge responsible for successfully guiding them through each live performance. The judges even told Nikolas, “you don’t have the x-factor; you are the x-factor!” High profile Cypriot composer and songwriter Giorgos Theofanous, most likened to Britain’s Simon Cowell when it comes to his judging style and sharp comments, told Nikolas over and over again that he’ll make it big. And when Theofanous says something like that, it means he’ll make it bigger than big – he’ll be a star.
I’d have to agree with him. Nikolas can do just about anything. He can run from one side of the stage to the other singing ‘Let me Entertain You’ ala Robbie Williams, he can belt out Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and he can even do Greek rock brilliantly.
This 21-year-old Limassolian postponed his scholarship to Berkeley to be on the show; a musician who is humble despite the fact that he never stopped getting praise from the first moment he sung ‘Hotel California’ and made hairs stand on end in the summer auditions.
Actually, there was hardly a single occasion when the judges had anything bad to say; in most instances they were just left speechless. Simple as that. He can also play the guitar and piano to perfection. Straight out of the army, he may be young, but he stood out from the 12,000 hopefuls lining up in anticipation of a place in the limelight.
While many fans had little doubt that he would win the show, televoting is full of surprises and predictions aren’t easy to make. After a nail biting and gruelling final, he ended up securing second place, with first position and the big Sony BMG contract going to Loukas – the 22-year old blue eyed man from Aradippou who can sing Greek songs at the top of his lungs and pull it off just as well as any big shot.
Leaving girls week at the knees, his fellow compatriots were so happy to see him climb the ladder of success that they plastered huge posters of his face around the village in the weeks leading up to the big crunch night. On the eve of the final, everyone gathered round a giant outdoor screen to cheer him on.
But I think that for most of here on the island, there is no single winner. Loukas and Nikolas have completely different styles and they’re set to pursue different career paths. Continually jetting back and forth between Greece and Cyprus in the past month, the time has finally come for Nikolas to spill the beans about his plans.
It looks like he’ll definitely be setting up camp overseas. “It’s just been confirmed that I’ll be playing with Kokkina Halia at Hotel Club in Thessaloniki every Friday and Saturday. I think the group are great and we’re both into the same rock style,” he says. While Kokkina Halia earned fourth place in the show, they were a big favourite for Nikolas. “They are the ones I connected to the most, both musically and character wise. We both want do the rock thing you know?” Yes, I certainly do.
As for his other personal favourites on the show, Nikolas confesses that his soft spots are Loukas, Jukebox and Louis. When you’re around the same people for so long, making friends is part of the package and once the bright lights and cameras were put away, plenty of fun nights out were had by all.
While Nikolas is still not sure when exactly he’ll be signing a record deal, he does say there have been lots of offers. “I’ll be working with Theofanous I can tell you that for sure. He’s kind of my manger at the moment.” Now that’s a big deal. With Theophanous working with some of the biggest names on the Greek music scene today, including Marinella, Remos and Dalaras, there’s little doubt this X-Factor finalist will be following the same glistening path.
In fact, Theofanous saw Nikolas sing before he even went onto the Greek show, calling him up to praise him about his work and pushing him to go and audition. Nikolas then lets me in on another snippet of information: “to be honest I really didn’t want to go onto the show at first. I thought maybe it would be the wrong exposure for me, maybe they’d dress me funny and it wouldn’t be my style,” he admits. “But because it’s a performance show and not a reality show I finally thought I’d just go for it.”
Suffice to say that he’s extremely happy he took up the challenge, with his position at Berkeley put on hold for a while although he definitely wants to head there at some point in the future. But for the moment there’s just too much else on his plate to deal with. With so many people recognising him on the street and hundreds of girls giving him plenty of attention practically every minute of the day, wouldn’t he like to just shy away from it all for just a little while after such a long and tiring few months of non-stop rehearsing and performances on X-Factor?
“No I wouldn’t want to do that,” he says. “It’s weird but nice when people come up and compliment me. People are just happy for me and seem to really appreciate my performances.” Not phased by all the attention, it goes without saying that all his close friends are really excited for him. But he does chuckle when he thinks of all the fan mail he’s received from people that never even spoke to him when he was a pupil at Limassol’s Grammar School. It’s quite ironic that he actually wrote a song called ‘Lonely’ backed up by a namesake album that he released early last year before he had a clue that people would soon be totally mad about him.
With an English school upbringing, it fits in that there were plenty of foreign numbers in his X-Factor repertoire. “That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to do something in Greece, just that I want to do it differently. I’d like to do music in the English/American kind of way with Greek lyrics; something that doesn’t just fit in with that clich?d commercial Greek style.”
As for the music you’ll find on his i-pod, it’s anything from Coldplay and Muse to Alter Bridge and Slipknot. His eyes dart back and forth as he explains that there’s loads more. “Oh yeah, I also like really sort of depressing Damien Rice type stuff!” I figure there aren’t too many nights spent bopping away to commercial club tunes for this young man. “Nah I’m the ‘watching a good movie kind of guy’,” he confirms.
But with so much on his mind of late, he’ll probably have to leave quality flicks for another time. After all, it’s not just all about X-Factor at the moment with his 16-year-old sister having been chosen to represent Cyprus in this year’s Eurovision song contest.
Christina will be h
eading to Moscow with a song written by Nikolas. Oh yes, he writes and composes too and (wait for it), he’s been doing it since the age of 12. Not just your average kid who’s into music at school, he won the island-wide Lions composer composition in 2004 and in 2006 bagged top place in the same competition as a singer.
Having written the Eurovision winning ‘Firefly’ song last September, it was actually all down on paper before he had any idea what would happen with X-Factor. Familiar with the Eurovision scene after coming second in last year’s Cyprus selection, Nikolas is now rushing around to help promote his sister’s song in a tour around Europe. But how’s Christina possibly going to be touring when she’s still at school? No problem. Following her brother’s footsteps at the Grammar School, the A-grade student has been given permission to be off for three months.
Being so young, there’s inevitably a lot of work involved and she needs the right training to get her voice up to scratch. The coaching lessons have already begun and things are in full swing as the whole Metaxas family rally around to make sure Christina gets through the semi-final on May 14 and gains a place in the grand final on May 16. With Nikolas confident that she’ll get through, it looks like the Metaxas family will become a Eurovision trademark as he himself hopes to one day rock the boat at the competition.
Speaking of competition, what was it like behind the scenes at X-Factor? While he assures there were no cat fights or bust ups, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any funny stories up his sleeve. Touching on the subject of all those hilarious auditions back in the summer involving people who can’t sing, Nikolas has a giggle. “Oh yeah, it’s just hilarious. I had one of those hopefuls coming up to me the other day in my dressing room with his CD and phone number on it. I think he’s eager for me to get him somewhere.” He then rummages through the pockets of his jacket to show me the proof: “look I kid you not!”
But just how disappointed was he that he didn’t win first place? “I’d have been really upset if my career depended on it but I was happy with the way I performed and people got to know who I really am and what I do best so it doesn’t really matter.” So why exactly does he think that Loukas won? “He’s more close to what the Greeks want at first sight. The crowds felt safe and comfortable voting for him. He’s very good at singing the kind of music that’s the most popular there. That’s not my thing and I couldn’t do it as well as he does. But I can do other things better.”
In this sense Nikolas deserves credit for sticking to the slightly less mainstream rocky numbers he loves the most no matter what the outcome. “I prepared myself psychologically that Loukas was going to win to be honest so I wasn’t too upset; I knew what would happen on that night.” With plenty of speculation buzzing around as to whether the whole thing was set up, everybody knew that Loukas is perhaps going to prove more profitable as far as CD sales go with his style easily slipping into a more commercial genre. The point is though that it now makes little difference who came first or second. With so many choices ahead of him, Nikolas is free to choose the exact direction he wants to take with no one dictating what he should and shouldn’t be doing. When I ask him what he has to say to all those people who insist he should have been the winner, he smiles but the answer comes out with ease. “I just want to say thanks for believing in and supporting me and I promise to make good music. What really matters is that they like the music I go on to make because before you know it X-Factor will be long forgotten.”
Somehow, just before Nikolas leaves we even touch on the subject of horoscopes. Convinced he’s a water sign because of the obvious sensitivity he exudes, he has a laugh as I guess correctly that he’s a Pisces. Having just celebrated his birthday as this goes to print, he’s certainly got plenty of reasons to rejoice.
Time is ticking and Nikolas has to dash back to Limassol to pack his suitcase before making his way to the airport for an afternoon flight. But it’s not easy to leave a place when there are so many people asking you for autographs. “My niece loves you, let me take a picture of you,” yells one man. “So how’s it going, are you really famous now?” asks another. “Me? No!” replies a slightly bemused Nikolas.
Funny how someone who’s been under such hot spotlights can be so modest at times. The thing about this young man is that he’ll probably never think he’s famous even if his face is sprawled on glittering billboards across town. Watch this space.
