Haris Alexiou will be singing at the opening ceremony of the FIBA World Championship in basketball that takes place in Turkey August 28 – September 12th 2010. She is the only Greek singer who has even participated in the opening ceremony of a FIBA championship.
The great news is that Haris Alexiou will be singing with a great Turkish singer, Sezen Aksu. We remind you that the two artists gave two concerts in Athens and Istanbul back in 1999, encouraging the Greece – Turkey Friendship and Collaboration.
The 2010 FIBA World Basketball Championship will start with a vivacious opening ceremony, featuring performances by distinguished singers, Cirque De Soleil, and Children of the World. Cirque Du Soleil will concentrate on the theme of Istanbul in a show they have created especially for FIBA.
Other singers and groups who will perform at the opening ceremony are Anadolu Ateşi, Fatih Erkoç, Müslüm Gürses, and Italian tenor Alessandro Safina. Turkey has spent 24 million euros preparing for the ceremony.
The event, which will take place in the Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul’s Ataköy district on Aug. 27, will be spectacular, given that a large budget was not allocated to the opening ceremonies hosted in Toronto, Indianapolis and Japan. Past World Basketball Championship opening ceremonies were kept simple, said Turgay Demirel, head of the Turkish Basketball Federation.
The ceremony will commence at 9:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live in HD to 172 countries via 18 cameras.
