Manos Phi entered a song in the race to represent his home country at Eurovision
A computer scientist who has called Edinburgh and the Lothians home for more than a decade hopes to swap his day job for the Eurovision stage after entering a song in the race to represent Greece.
Manos Phi has come a long way since he rediscovered his passion for music during the pandemic when his keyboard provided much-needed respite from “endless hours” stuck at home staring at a screen trying to debug problematic code.
The 44-year-old, who moved to the city in 2013 on a scholarship, went on to join Edinburgh’s Gay Men’s Chorus four years ago and has not looked back since.
He explained: “Joining the choir was as much a social thing as it was a musical thing.
“It’s very much a community choir, we don’t audition. The result is always surprisingly good for a choir that doesn’t audition because we want people to have a place where they can go and feel welcome.
“It really is a great thing.”
Its members are “quite excited” that Manos has taken the plunge and submitted an entry to Sing for Greece, which will select the country’s song for next year’s song contest in Bulgaria.
The choir, which holds a Eurovision sweepstake each year, performed his first original song earlier this year at a European LGBTQ+ choir festival in Brussels.
Competition rules mean Manos, who is now the choir’s assistant musical director, has to remain tight-lipped about the new song he hopes will wow the judges, but he said that is what makes the competition so exciting.
The performer said: “I really like the format. It’s not about who’s best connected and who manages to figure out a way to get selected.
“It’s a way to break through the limitations of today’s algorithms and all that which are really a problem for independent artists.”
The Greek worked on the song with a producer from his hometown of Heraklion in Crete but says he really loves his new country.
“I really do appreciate what the UK has to offer, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love my country where I grew up as well as the people who I left behind,” the computer scientist who now lives in Livingston said.
Winners of Sing for Greece have had a great track record at Eurovision’s final since the country launched the pre-selection competition in 2025, with the victorious songs placing sixth and tenth respectively.
Manos will find out whether he has made the shortlist of 20 artists in January but before then he and the choir will be singing their normal mix of pop hits and big ballads along with some festive tunes at their winter concert.
The singer-songwriter described joining the LGBTQ+ choir as “really rewarding” and added that penning tunes for them to sing is not much different from his day job.
He explained: “They’re both my passions.
“Music has a lot of the same kind of concepts to it, you need structure, you need the maths of it all, it does have a lot of commonality with science.”
Proceeds for their Christmas concert, Sleigh, Queens!, on December 5 help support the HIV and hepatitis C charity Waverley Care.
