Evri!diki!

It's not often that a Eurovision perfomer pops up in London, so I hot-footed it to the salubrious surroundings of Haringey yesterday to see the Cypriot wonder-diva Evridiki.

• The venue, a Greek-Cypriot club, was all kinds of ace. I heard songs by: Helena Paparizou, Sakis Rouvas, Anna Vissi and Keti Garbi. Euro-tastic.
• One highlight was watching a brassy barmaid belt out an Anna Vissi song.
• Evridiki made her way onto the stage surrounded by security, and accompanied by Dmitrios who mimed playing his guitar through all the songs.
• Evridiki was power-fringing, looking out from underneath her sharp, sharp fringe. A wind machine would have a wonderful effect
• Her dancing to Comme Ci, Comme Ca involved lots of flailing about and shaking her arms. Ace.
• Her style is gothique, wearing a black toga dress and red animal print leggings and silver jewellery.
• She's as skinny as a whip, and ever so youthful. It's very hard to believe she was this classy diva in 1994. It's like she's aging backwards.
• Evridiki sang a traditional Cypriot song... it went on a bit. Every line ended with a high note, giving false hope that the song was ending... but no, on it went.
• Knowing where her bread is buttered, she played an encore of Comme Ci, Comme Ca. Some old duffer asked us all nicely to give her 12 points. We say yes! (on careful consideration of all the other songs, naturally.)

After the glamour of Haringey, Evridiki packed up and went off to grimy Soho to play The Shadow Lounge. Colour me shocked! That's something of a coup. Click here to see a video of her performance. My highlight is when she grabs the pole to do a pole dance, but then changes her mind.