We received the sad news that today, Greek musician Agathonas Iakovidis passed away. In 2013, Iakovidis represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest as a member of the group Koza Mostra. They sang the song “Alcohol is free” and reached the 6th place.
Agathonas Iakovidis was born in Evangelismos, in the northern part of Greece. He began a musical carreer in 1973, after he learned to play a lot of instruments, especially some traditional Greek instruments like the oud and the bouzouki. In 1977 he started playing in a the Rebetiko Band of Thessaloniki and recorded two albums with them. He lived in Athens for years and worked with a lot of folk music artists there. Since 1987 his musical base is Thessaloniki.
Agathanos Iakovidis died in his sleep tonight after a heart attack. He was 65 years old.
Dutch broadcaster delays decision on participation
The Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS has been allowed to delay their decision about participating in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes Eurovision, has given them until at least November 1 to decide. AVROTROS explained that a meeting with the EBU’s leadership has started a positive conversation. To give this conversation a chance, they asked for more time to decide if they will participate. The EBU agreed to this delay, and AVROTROS is thankful for it. The broadcaster started questioning their participation after the EBU disqualified Dutch artist Joost Klein from this year’s Eurovision final in Malmö, Sweden. Klein had an argument with a camerawoman, which led to his disqualification. AVROTROS disagreed with the EBU’s decision. Recently, Swedish authorities closed the case, saying there wasn’t enough evidence. Next year’s Eurovision will take place in May in Basel, Switzerland. The EBU hopes that the Netherlands will take part and plans to announce the list of participating countries by the end of the year. Share
