Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The Greek national broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) announced that they will use a national final in order to find the Greek representative in Lisbon, after two consecutive years of internal selection.[2] This decision was later reversed when all but one of the competing finalists' record labels were unable to provide a guarantee of the €20,000 fee requested by ERT, and thus "Oniro mou" sung by Gianna Terzi was internally selected.

Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Country	Greece
National selection
Selection process	Internal selection
Selection date(s)	16 February 2018[1]
Selected entrant	Yianna Terzi
Selected song	"Oniro mou"
Selected songwriter(s)	Aris Kalimeris Dimitris Stamatiou Yianna Terzi Mihalis Papathanasiou
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Failed to qualify (14th, 81 points)
Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2017 • 2018 • 2019►

Background

Main article: Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2017 contest, Greece had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-seven times since their debut in 1974.[3] The nation has won the contest on one occasion in 2005 with the song "My Number One" performed by Helena Paparizou. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Greece has managed to thus far qualify to the final with each of their entries. Between 2004 and 2011, the nation achieved eight consecutive top ten placements in the final. To this point, Greece in 2016 with Argo's "Utopian Land" failed to qualify from the semi-finals for the first time ever, being absent from the final for the first time since 2000. This was Greece's worst result at the contest. However, Greece returned to the final in 2017 with Demy's song "This Is Love", finishing in 19th place.

The Greek national broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), broadcasts the event within Greece and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. ERT had been in charge of Greece's participation in the contest since their debut in 1974 until 2013 when the broadcaster was shut down by a government directive and replaced with the interim Dimosia Tileorasi (DT) and then later by the New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television (NERIT) broadcaster.[4][5] Following the January 2015 Greek legislative election, a draft proposal was initiated to reinstate ERT as the public Greek broadcaster. On 28 April 2015, the draft was approved and signed into law by the Hellenic Parliament, resulting in the renaming of NERIT to ERT; ERT began broadcasting once again on 11 June 2015.[6][7] ERT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on 28 August 2015.[8] The Greek broadcaster has used various methods to select the Greek entry in the past, such as internal selections and televised national finals to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. Since 2010, the Greek entry has been selected via a national final that featured a competition among several artists and songs with the votes of an expert jury and a public televote deciding the Greek Eurovision entry.

Before Eurovision

ERT announced on 1 October 2017 that the representative of the country would be chosen through a national final, after two consecutive years of internal selection. On 4 October 2017, ERT sent a letter to leading record labels regarding its national final for Eurovision 2018. Requesting songs, the letter makes clear that lyrics ought to be ‘exclusively’ in Greek and that the entries should preferably have a native sound, too.[9] The deadline to receive the entries was the 20 October. However, ERT announced that the deadline would be extended for one week, with the new deadline being the 27 October.

The national broadcaster announced the artistic committee that will evaluate the songs to be submitted for the Greek final. The eight judges are:

• Anastasios Symeonidis – Chairperson
• Petros Dourdoubakis – Songwriter, radio producer
• Dimitris Ktistakis – Conductor
• Alexis Kostas
• Mihalis Messinis – Songwriter
• Andreas Pylarinos – Conductor
• Giannis Spyropoulos – Orchestrator
• Tsaras Pantazis – radio producer

By 27 October 2017, twenty artists had confirmed their intention to participate in the Greek final. On 8 November 2017, it was unofficially reported by Greek media that the artistic committee had selected five (out of 20 possible) artists/bands (and their songs) to go through to the next round, which doesn't necessarily mean that they will compete in the Greek national selection, since the respective record labels have to assure ERT that in case their song wins the ticket to Lisbon, they will exclusively finance the Greek entry (staging in Lisbon, promotion and music video). The five acts that reportedly got through to the next round are highlighted in orange:[10]

Artist	Label	Song Title (English translation)	Music (m) / Lyrics (l)	Source
Areti Ketime	The Spicy Effect	"Min ksehnas ton ilio" (Do not forget the sun)	Dimitris Karras, Nancy Auradopoulos	[11][12]
Panagiotis Tsakalakos & Tania Breazou	Feelgood Records	"Anepanalipti" (Unprecedented)	TBA	[13]
Vasiliki Stefanou	Polymusic	"Gia Sena" (For You)	Giorgos Kiriakou, Magda Varoucha	[14]
Stereo Soul feat. DJ Koncept	Heaven Music	"Boro" (I Can)	DJ Koncept	[15]
Christina Salti	Panik Records	"To S'agapo" (The Word I Love You)	TBA	[16]
Giannis Moraitis	Vinilio Music	"Oi polloi eimaste ena" (We all are one)	Andreas Lambrou	[17]
Dimitris Kiklis	Vinilio Music	"Odos agapis" (Street of love)	Andreas Lambrou	[18]
Chorostalites	Spider Music	"Apo tin Thraki eos tin Kriti" (From Thrace to Crete)	Vasilis Messaritakis	[19]
Duo Fina	Records On Top	"Idio tempo" (Same tempo)	Yiannis Finas, Takis Finas	[20]
Tony Vlahos	Spider Music	"Baila jazz" (Dance jazz)	Antonis Karatzikis, Maria Athini, Tony Vlachos	[21]
Kyriaki Derebei feat. LAVA	FinalTouch	"Kokkina feggaria" (Red moons)	MadFeel, LAVA	[22]
Vaggelis Panatos	E&E Music Production	"Mesogeios" (Mediterranean)	Vaggelis Panatos, Elena Maniati	[23]
Yianna Terzi	Panik Records	"Oniro mou" (My dream)	Aris Kalimeris, Dimitris Stamatiou, Yianna Terzi, Mihalis Papathanasiou	[24]
Decho	Minos EMI	"Idia Zali" (Same Dizziness)	Yiannis Vayionas, Panos Dekoulakos	[25]
Tania Breazou	Feelgood Records	"Kati" (Something)	TBA	[26]
INK	Heaven Music	"Thimame" (I remember)	INK, Christos Tsantalis, Kostas Apostolopoulos, Savas Karampalasis	[27]
Yiannis Dimitras	Mirror Music	"Ta paidia tis Athinas" (The children of Athens)	Yiannis Dimitras	[28]
Dimitris Liolios	Satellite Records	"Ta Monopatia" (The Paths)	TBA	[28]
Nikos Baibos	Satellite Records	"Efhi Kai Katara" (Blessing And Curse)	TBA	[28]
Foteini Vasilaki	Music Art Lab	"Pes Pos M'agapas" (Say That You Love Me)	TBA	[28]

Ellinikós Telikós 2018

The final would be held on 22 February 2018 while the songs will have been revealed in 12th of the same month. The five artists selected by the artistic committee on 7 November 2017. The winner will be selected through 100% televoting. On 14 February 2018, it was revealed that the final will be hosted by Panagiotis Kountouras and Nikos Pitanios. On 15 February, the Greek national final was cancelled. Both Areti Ketime and Chorostalites were disqualified.[29] A day later, ERT confirmed that the only remaining act, Yianna Terzi would represent Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.[30]

Final

Draw	Artist	Song (English translation)	Songwriter(s)	Televote	Place
—	Yianna Terzi	"Oniro mou" (My dream)	Aris Kalimeris, Dimitris Stamatiou, Υianna Terzi, Mihalis Papathanasiou	—	1
—	Areti Ketime	"Min ksehnas ton ilio" (Do not forget the sun)	Dimitris Karras	Disqualified^2
—	Chorostalites	"Apo tin Thraki eos tin Kriti" (From Thrace to Crete)	Vasilis Messaritakis
—	Duo Fina	"Idio tempo" (Same tempo)	Yiannis Finas, Takis Finas	Disqualified^1
—	Tony Vlahos	"Baila jazz" (Dance jazz)	Antonis Karatzikis, Maria Athini, Tony Vlachos

Notes

1.^ On November 14th, 2017, it was reported that ERT decided to disqualify two of the five songs selected by the artistic committee, stating that despite their high quality and authenticity, they don't meet all of ERT's requirements, since they have Greek lyrics, but do not have a Greek sound

2.^ On February 15th, 2018, ERT announced that two of the three record companies (The Spicy Effect and Spider Music) did not pay the amount requested by ERT (€ 20,000) and were excluded from the Greek Final.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Greece was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 8 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[31]

Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Greece was set to perform in position 14, following the entry from Austria and preceding the entry from Finland.[32]

The two semi-finals and the final were televised in Greece on ERT1, ERT HD and ERT World as well as broadcast via radio on ERA 2 and Voice of Greece with commentary by Alexandros Lizardos and Daphne Skalioni.[33]

Semi-final

Greece performed fourteenth in the first semi-final, following Austria and preceding Finland. At the end of the night, Greece was not one of the ten countries announced as qualifying for the grand final, making it their second non-qualification since 2016. It was later revealed that Greece placed fourteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 81 points: 53 points from the televoting and 28 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member, as well as the nation's televoting results, were released shortly after the grand final.

Points awarded to Greece

Points awarded to Greece (Semi-final 1)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Cyprus	Albania  Bulgaria	Armenia
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
	Macedonia	Croatia  United Kingdom	Switzerland	Belgium
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
	Azerbaijan	Cyprus
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
		Albania  Croatia	Armenia	Iceland  Ireland

Points awarded by Greece

Semi-final 1 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Cyprus  Azerbaijan 10 points  Albania  Estonia 8 points  Estonia  Albania 7 points  Bulgaria  Cyprus 6 points  Czech Republic  Bulgaria 5 points  Armenia  Croatia 4 points  Ireland  Israel 3 points  Azerbaijan  Macedonia 2 points  Israel  Czech Republic 1 point  Belarus   Switzerland

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Cyprus  Cyprus 10 points  Albania  Moldova 8 points  Italy  Sweden 7 points  Czech Republic  Albania 6 points  Israel  Hungary 5 points  Bulgaria  France 4 points  Estonia  Israel 3 points  Norway  Estonia 2 points  Germany  Serbia 1 point  Moldova  Italy

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Greek jury:[34]

• Nikolaos Graigos (Nikos Graigos) – Chairperson – artist (performer), music producer
• Ioannis Nikoletopoulos (Yiannis Nikoletopoulos) – artist (percussionist), author of lyrics, composer
• Nektarios Anagnostopoulos (Ares Anagnostopoulos) – artist manager
• Eleni Ouiliams (Ilenia Williams) – music journalist, TV presenter, radio producer
• Maria Enepekidou (Margo Enepekidi) – performer, musician, composer

Split voting results from Greece (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		N. Graigos	Y. Nikoletopoulos	A. Anagnostopoulos	I. Williams	M. Enepekidi	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Azerbaijan	1	1	1	2	2	1	12	8	3
02	Iceland	18	18	18	17	17	18		18
03	Albania	4	3	2	4	5	3	8	2	10
04	Belgium	15	13	14	16	15	16		12
05	Czech Republic	7	10	10	6	8	9	2	5	6
06	Lithuania	16	11	4	18	18	11		13
07	Israel	11	5	5	12	10	7	4	9	2
08	Belarus	13	14	15	7	9	13		10	1
09	Estonia	5	2	3	3	4	2	10	3	8
10	Bulgaria	2	4	9	5	3	5	6	4	7
11	Macedonia	8	7	8	9	7	8	3	17
12	Croatia	9	8	6	8	6	6	5	16
13	Austria	14	12	13	11	12	14		15
14	Greece
15	Finland	12	15	17	13	11	15		14
16	Armenia	17	16	16	15	14	17		6	5
17	Switzerland	3	17	12	14	16	10	1	11
18	Ireland	10	9	11	10	13	12		7	4
19	Cyprus	6	6	7	1	1	4	7	1	12

Split voting results from Greece (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		N. Graigos	Y. Nikoletopoulos	A. Anagnostopoulos	I. Williams	M. Enepekidi	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	23	17	21	24	21	22		15
02	Spain	25	25	20	19	22	24		24
03	Slovenia	26	18	24	23	20	23		25
04	Lithuania	17	20	16	16	15	18		18
05	Austria	20	19	22	17	17	20		20
06	Estonia	9	10	12	5	3	8	3	7	4
07	Norway	24	12	11	13	10	15		8	3
08	Portugal	21	22	23	22	25	25		26
09	United Kingdom	22	24	26	21	23	26		22
10	Serbia	6	6	7	9	7	9	2	19
11	Germany	13	13	2	18	19	11		9	2
12	Albania	5	5	5	6	6	4	7	2	10
13	France	8	1	9	7	16	6	5	11
14	Czech Republic	10	11	10	10	11	13		4	7
15	Denmark	14	26	25	26	26	21		14
16	Australia	12	23	19	4	14	14		21
17	Finland	16	21	15	15	18	19		23
18	Bulgaria	18	14	18	12	9	16		6	5
19	Moldova	4	3	4	2	2	2	10	10	1
20	Sweden	7	8	6	3	4	3	8	17
21	Hungary	1	9	14	8	5	5	6	13
22	Israel	2	7	8	11	8	7	4	5	6
23	Netherlands	15	4	13	20	12	12		16
24	Ireland	11	15	17	14	13	17		12
25	Cyprus	3	2	3	1	1	1	12	1	12
26	Italy	19	16	1	25	24	10	1	3	8

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