Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979

Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979
Eurovision Song Contest 1979
Participating broadcaster	Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT)
Country	Greece
Selection process	National final
Selection date	5 February 1979
Competing entry
Song	"Socrates"
Artist	Elpida
Songwriters	Doros Georgiadis Sotia Tsotou
Placement
Final result	8th, 69 points
Participation chronology
◄1978 • 1979 • 1980►

Greece was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 with the song "Socrates", composed by Doros Georgiadis, with lyrics by Sotia Tsotou, and performed by Elpida. The Greek participating broadcaster, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), held a national final to select its entry.

Before Eurovision

National final

The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) held the national final on 5 February 1979 at the Municipal Theater in Piraeus, hosted by Vasilis Tsivilikas. The winning song was chosen by a jury of 65 people who awarded each song a mark out of 10.

Final – 5 February 1979

Draw	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Kostas Hatzis	"Na'han oli i anthropi mia agapi opos ki ego"	379	3
2	Bessy Argyraki	"Athena (mana mou)"	322	5
3	Sofia Zaninou	"Stin arhi"	271	6
4	Christie Stasinopoulou	"Dose mou enan sticho"	462	2
5	Elpida	"Sokrati"	528	1
6	Paola Komini, Maria Filosofou, Fotini Filosofou, Dimitris Kontoyiannis, and Stefanos Dekerian	"Dio se mia ombrella"	349	4

At Eurovision

"Sokrati" was re-titled "Socrates" for Eurovision, and was performed seventh on the evening (following Monaco's "Notre vie c'est la musique" by Laurent Vaguener and preceding Switzerland's "Trödler Und Co" by Peter, Sue and Marc and Pfuri, Gorps & Kniri). At the close of voting, it had received 69 points, placing 8th in a field of 19. ^[1]

Elpida was accompanied on stage by Lia Vissi (who will later represent Cyprus in 1985), Polina (who was to represent Greece in 1986, but Greece withdrew), Yiannis Samsiaris and Stelios Goulielmos, all four of them being backing vocalists. ^[2]

Voting

Points awarded to Greece [3] Score Country 12 points 10 points   Israel   Portugal 8 points 7 points   Monaco   Netherlands   Spain    Switzerland 6 points 5 points   Luxembourg 4 points   France   Ireland 3 points 2 points   Austria   Germany   Sweden 1 point   Belgium   Denmark

Points awarded by Greece [3] Score Country 12 points   Denmark 10 points   Ireland 8 points   France 7 points   Finland 6 points   Spain 5 points   Luxembourg 4 points   Israel 3 points   Netherlands 2 points    Switzerland 1 point   Sweden

References

1. "Final of Jerusalem 1979". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
2. "Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979" (in Greek). musiccorner.gr. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
3. "Results of the Final of Jerusalem 1979". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.