Maria – Elena Kyriakou, mother of three and teacher from Larnaca, emerged as the next big voice of the first “The Voice” show which ended a little before 2 o’clock in the morning of Saturday.

Beautiful Maria Elena, who was competing until the last moment with 16-year old Areti Kosmidou for the first place in ANT1’s talent show, thanked her family, her children and her siblings when she received the award from the hands of Giorgos Liagas. Afterwards, her teammates went on stage to hug and congratulate her.

Maria – Elena also won a contract with Universal for her first album.

Her first song, however, along with the songs of the remaining seven finalists of “The Voice” will be released this Sunday by PROTO THEMA.

How did the big night start

The grand final of “The Voice” started with an unexpected surprise by Giorgos Liagas. The presenter played the first notes of “Love me Again (I need to know now)” on the piano and the eight contestants who were eliminated in the last two lives undertook to warm up the audience for the upcoming performances.

See Liagas’s piano performance:

Vandi and Mihalis (Stavento) fought to the end to help their contestants win, as the first two to be eliminated were Lefteris Kidatos (Antonis Remos) and Emily Charalambous (Melina Aslanidou).

The four finalists went on stage for the last time in the show and of course the coaches asked them to use the most valuable ‘weapon’ of all: their voice.

Each of the finalists interpreted three songs, one of which was a duet with his/her coach.

Note that the result was determined solely by public vote.

What happened in the final of “The Voice”

The final of “The Voice”, after the performance of George Liagas who surprised the audience with his hidden talents, started with a flashback. How did the four finalists reach the final? Which song persuaded the judges to turn during the blind auditions? Each one of the four sang a song written especially for his/her style. You will have the opportunity to hear them in the CD offered by the Sunday edition of Proto Thema.

The curtain opened with Maria – Elena Kyriakou, coached by Despina Vandi, whose song, entitled “Two Egos” was written by Dimitris Kontopoulos and Vaya Kalantzis, from Universal. This performance was immediately followed by an amazing duet with Maria – Elena and Despina Vandi. The charming ‘teacher’ and ‘student’ sang “No more tears (Enough is enough)”, a song chosen by Despina Vandi, who first performed it when she was young with Sophia Vossou and considers it to be lucky.

Lefteris Kindatos was next to perform. With renewed confidence after his duet with Vassilis Karras, the young man sang his new song “For Her” (Music by Gavriil Gavriiloglou and lyrics by Vassilis Karras, Giannis Molios.

Antonis Remos announced a future collaboration with his “pupil” Lefteris Kintatos, with whom he will travel to the US tomorrow. The popular singer was saving this surprise for anyone of his team members who would reach the final. They performed together the duet “To take my revenge on you”.

The clash between Remos and Mihalis (Stavento)

A “war” broke out between Antonis Remos and Mihalis (Stavento) because the former gave work to Lefteris Kintatos (offering to take him on tour to the US) but also because… they sing Greek songs! Mihalis said: “Don’t forget that we live in 2014 and we are not here to strengthen our national spirit.” Note that the debate over Greek songs continued all night, with Melina Aslanidou finally taking the side of Antonis Remos.

The third contestant to perform on stage was Emily Charalambous, coached by Melina Aslanidou, who sang a song written by George Papadopoulos and Vicky Gerothodorou “I am myself”. The two women sang afterwards the wonderful song “Ask of me whatever you want” (Haris Alexiou) and “The applause” (Alcestis Protopsalti).

Areti Kosmidou was the fourth (and the youngest) finalist. She performed a song written for her by Nikos Bitzenis entitled “So cruel”. The 16-year old girl sang afterwards with her coach Mihalis (Stavento) the duet “Before I met you” (Music and lyrics by Methisos).

The first elimination

The public vote for the four finalists started last Friday and ended almost at midnight on Friday. The first contestant to be eliminated at 23.45, was Emily Charalambous.

The second elimination

The second contestant to go was Lefteris Kindatos, who thanked his “Coach” Antonis Remos, for whom he said that he has a great voice.

The surprise: Stephanos Korkolis live

Immediately after the departure of Lefteris Kintatos, Stephanos Korkolis went on the stage, initially accompanying on piano Antonis Remos on two of the songs he has written himself. Then he presented a new song written especially for the night of the final and also a little flashback of some of his greatest hits.