Eurovision Song Contest 2023 | ||||
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Country | Greece | |||
National selection | ||||
Selection process | Internal selection | |||
Selection date(s) | Artist: 30 January 2023 Song: 12 March 2023 | |||
Selected entrant | Victor Vernicos | |||
Selected song | "What They Say" | |||
Selected songwriter(s) | Victor Vernicos Jørgensen | |||
Finals performance | ||||
Semi-final result | Failed to qualify (13th) | |||
Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
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Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. The Greek broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) internally selected Victor Vernicos to represent the country with the song "What They Say", which he composed himself. Vernicos was announced as the artist on 30 January 2023, while the song was presented to the public on 12 March. The entry selection process was subject to a legal challenge by second-place candidate Melissa Mantzoukis; however, Vernicos' participation was ultimately allowed to continue.
To promote "What They Say" as the Greek entry, a music video for the song was created as well as an acoustic version. Vernicos subsequently attended a meet-and-greet and gave interviews to foreign press. Greece was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 11 May 2023. Performing during the show in position eight, "What They Say" placed 13th in the semi-final with 14 points, failing to qualify for the contest's final. This marked Greece's third non-qualification and also its worst result to this point in terms of points received in a semi-final.
Prior to the 2023 contest, Greece had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 42 times since its debut in 1974. [1] The nation has won the contest once to this point, in 2005 with the song "My Number One" performed by Helena Paparizou. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Greece managed to qualify for the final with each of their entries for several years. Between 2004 and 2013, the nation achieved nine top ten placements in the final. The first entry to not qualify for the final was Argo's song "Utopian Land" in 2016. Its 16th place finish marked Greece's worst placing at the contest and led to its absence from the final for the first time since 2000, when they did not send an entry. In the 2018 contest, Greece failed to qualify for the second time with Yianna Terzi and the song " Oniro mou " finishing 14th in the semi-final. For the three contests prior to 2023, the nation once again returned to qualifying for the final, including in 2022, when Amanda Tenfjord and her song "Die Together" went on to place eighth with 215 points. [1]
The Greek national broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), broadcasts the event within Greece and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. [2] 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 firstly with the interim Dimosia Tileorasi (DT) and then later by the New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television (NERIT) broadcaster. [2] [3] [4] [5] Following the victory of the Syriza party at the January 2015 Greek legislative election, the Hellenic Parliament renamed NERIT to ERT that June. [6] [7] ERT confirmed their intentions to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 on 26 August 2022 when the announced details of their upcoming selection process for their entry. [8] [9]
On 26 August 2022, ERT opened a submission period where artists and composers were able to submit their proposals for consideration by the broadcaster until 9 October 2022. Artists were required to be signed to record labels and their proposal had to contain up to three songs, indicate the accompanying artistic group, and include ideas or concepts for the song's promotion and presentation. [8] [9] There were 106 songs received by the submission deadline. [10] Seven entries were then shortlisted by a 70-member committee and were announced on 28 December 2022. The entries included: "Shout Out!" performed by Antonia Kaouri and Maria Maragkou, "Holy Water" by Klavdia, "We're Young" by Konstantina Iosifidou, "Somewhere to Go" by Leon of Athens, "Liar" by Melissa Mantzoukis, "Proud" by Monika, and "What They Say" by Victor Vernicos. [11] [12]
The seven acts were then evaluated by public and artistic committees. The public committee consisted of a total of 70 members randomly selected from 2,982 applications based on five age groups: 25 members in the 18 to 24 category, 20 members in the 25 to 34 category, 15 members in the 35 to 44 category and 10 members in the over 45 category. [13] The artistic committee consisted of Petros Adam (music producer), Leonidas Antonopoulos (journalist and music producer), Fotis Apergis (ERT radio director), Konstantinos Bourounis (head of ERT's youth program), Maria Kozakou (director of the Second Programme of Hellenic Radio), Dimitris Papadimitriou (music composer) and Yannis Petridis (music producer). [14] On 19 January 2023, ERT shortlisted three final songs from the seven, which was the outcome of the public committee vote, followed by a respective evaluation by the artistic committee. The final three were announced through ERT1 show, Proian se eidon tin mesimvrian (Greek: Πρωίαν σε είδον την μεσημβρίαν; I saw you in the morning, at noon). [14] [15]
The combination of votes from the public committee (50.6%) and the artistic committee (49.4%) then selected the Greek entry. [16] [17] This marked the first time that ERT had opted for a format where the entry was selected by two panels. [18] Greek-Danish singer Victor Vernicos was announced as the Greek representative for the 2023 contest through ERT1's newscast on 30 January 2023. [19] At 16 years-old, he became the youngest entrant to be selected to represent the nation. [20] [21] Vernicos' entry, "What They Say", was released on 12 March 2023 through Panik Records alongside its music video. [22]
Artist | Song | Artistic committee | Public committee | Total | Place |
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Antonia Kaouri and Maria Maragkou | "Shout Out!" | 720 | 341 | 1,061 | 3 |
Melissa Mantzoukis | "Liar" | 440 | 693 | 1,133 | 2 |
Victor Vernicos | "What They Say" | 740 | 509 | 1,249 | 1 |
Following the announcement of Vernicos as the Greek entrant, Mantzoukis publicly protested the results of the process, threatening legal action. [23] [24] [25] Mantzoukis and her legal team cited two concerns in their challenge of the results. Prior to the artistic committee's vote, it was reported that Kaouri and Maragkou had withdrawn themselves from consideration, leaving only two entrants as options. Despite this, all three acts were awarded points by the committee. Secondly, they alleged that even if all three acts were considered, the point values awarded do not sum to the quantity of points available, and if they had, Mantzoukis would have won. [23] [25] Artistic committee member Kozakou then explained in an interview on ERT's Proian se eidon tin mesimvrian that point values were not awarded based on awards of first, second and third place by the committee (12, 10 or 8 points, respectively, in Eurovision fashion), but from 12 through 4 points (first through seventh) to align the total point values with the quantity awarded by the public committee. [26] Mantzoukis' lawyer Christos Zotiadis responded during an interview on Star Channel's show Breakfast @ Star that they were unsatisfied with ERT's response, and requested that the detailed committee votes for each member at each voting stage be released for transparency. [26] [27]
A temporary injunction halting the Greek participation was denied by Greek courts on 6 March, citing the short time period between then and the EBU's 13 March deadline for entry submissions. [28] Mantzoukis' lawsuit to be declared the winner and awarded damages was anticipated to be heard in mid-May following the contest. [28] Arguments in the lawsuit ended on 4 July, with the judge expected to make a decision within six to seven months of that date. [29]
To promote the entry, a music video of the song, directed by Yiannis Georgioudakis, was filmed. [30] The video was produced by PickCodes, with Kostas Kalimeris, Steve Sovolos, and Vangelis Gialamas taking part in its production. [31] It was scheduled to be released on 6 March alongside the song itself, but was delayed due to the Tempi train crash. [30] The song and video were eventually released on 12 March during the show Dio sti 1 (Greek: Δύο στη 1; Two in 1) and were available later that day through ERT's over-the-top media service ERTFlix and on the ERT's YouTube channel. [32] To further promote the entry, Vernicos took part in a meet-and-greet event on 6 April organised by ERT. The event was attended by the Greek Eurovision delegation, local British embassy representatives, as well as mainstream print, television and radio media. He sang his entry "What They Say" live with a guitar and covered a number of past Eurovision entries. [33] Further promotion involved an acoustic version of the song being released on the official Eurovision YouTube channel as part of its A Little Bit More series. [34] Vernicos was largely absent from the Eurovision touring circuit and did not attend pre-parties, [35] although he made several appearances and performed at The Cavern Club and the EuroClub in Camp and Furnace upon his arrival in Liverpool. [36]
The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 took place at the Liverpool Arena in Liverpool, United Kingdom, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 9 and 11 May and the final on 13 May 2023. [37] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (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 10 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 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Greece was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 11 May 2023, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. [38] Once all the competing entries for the 2023 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the producers of the contest to prevent similar songs from being placed next to each other. [39] Greece was set to perform in position eight, following the entry from the Iceland and before the entry from Poland. [39]
In Greece, all shows were televised on ERT1 with commentary by Maria Kozakou and Jenny Melita. [40] A radio broadcast on Deftero Programma included the commentary by Kozakou and Melita, with Dimitris Meidanis covering the commercial breaks with interviews and contest history. [41]
Prior to leaving for the contest, Vernicos took part in rehearsals daily at ERT's studios in Athens in late April. [42] This was followed by technical rehearsals in Liverpool on 2 and 5 May, and dress rehearsals on 10 May. [43] The latter included the jury show where the professional back-up juries of each country watched and voted in a result used if any issues with public televoting occurred. [44]
The stage presence for "What They Say" was organised by Konstantinos Rigos who served as artistic director for the entry. Rigos had previously directed the Greek entries in 2011 and 2012. [28] The performance consisted of Vernicos being alone on stage with no backing dancers or vocalists. [45] He wore a beige-coloured shorts-suit by costume designer George Segredakis, [33] [46] and was surrounded by a video wall showing rainfall, a large-scale video of himself, as well as lyrics of the song in English and the Greek alphabet. [46] [47] Rigos described the inspiration for the stage presence as "Greek summer". [45]
At the end of the second semi-final, Greece was not among the ten countries announced as qualifiers for the final. [48] It was later revealed that Greece placed 13th in the semi-final, receiving a total of 14 points. [49] This marked Greece's third non-qualification to the final and also its worst result to this point in terms of points received in a semi-final. [1]
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Greece in the second semi-final as well as by Greece in the second semi-final and final of the contest. Also included is the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows. Voting during the shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public. [50] [51] Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. 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. [52] The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the final; the individual results from each jury member were released in an anonymised form. The Greek jury consisted of Christos Giakoumopoulos, Fotios Giannoutsos, Nikolaos Nikolakopoulos, Claudia Matola, and Evanthia Theotokatou. [53]
In the second semi-final, Greece finished in 13th place out of 16 entries and received 14 points total from two countries: the top 12 points from Cyprus and two points from Armenia. Over the course of the contest, Greece awarded its 12 points to Cyprus in the second semi-final and to Belgium (jury) and Cyprus (televote) in the final. [49] [54] The Greek spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Greek jury during the final, was Fotis Sergoulopoulos . [55]
Points awarded by Greece
Detailed voting resultsThe following members comprised the Greek jury: [53]
After EurovisionReceptionGreece's failure to qualify to the final led to media outlets once again citing Mantzoukis' lack of selection as a problem. As reported in TVNea, foreign press preferred Mantzoukis' entry "Liar" over Vernicos' from the beginning, and saw it as a contender for high placement at the contest. [56] Giorgos Liagas, presenter of the show To Proino on ANT1, expressed that ERT had mocked the Greek people by including them in the selection process, but not sending their preferred candidate to represent them at the contest. [57] Appearing on the Alpha TV show Super Katerina on 12 May, the day after the second semi-final, lyricist Evi Droutsa opined that the song lacked a melody, that Vernicos was too young to compete at this level, and that his selection centered too much on his last name and family. [58] ERT released a statement following the non-qualification, reinforcing the integrity of the selection process and explaining that Vernicos met the demands of the contest and deserved applause. [59] The artist himself posted on social media shortly after saying "I love you guys. Many more to come soon. Thank you to all Eurovision fans for the amazing experience". [60] Related Research ArticlesGreece has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 43 times since its debut in 1974, missing six contests in that time. Greece's first win came in 2005 with "My Number One", sung by Helena Paparizou. The Greek national broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), broadcasts the event each year and organises the process for the selection of the Greek entry. Greece has never finished last in the contest. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 with the song "Yassou Maria", written by Alex Papaconstantinou, Marcus Englöf and Markus Sepehrmanesh. The song was performed by Sarbel. To select their entry for the 2007 contest, which took place in Helsinki, Finland, Greek national television broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) organised the national final Eurovision 2007 which took place on 28 February 2007. The event saw three acts—Sarbel, Tamta and Christos Dantis—compete to be the Greek representative. Greece competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001, held on 12 May 2001 at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Greek broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) organised a public selection process entitled Ellinikós Telikós 2001 to determine its entry for the contest. Held on 6 March 2001 in Athens, the event saw nine songs compete to be the Greek entry; the results were determined by a combination of jury and televoting. The song "Die for You", written by Nikos Terzis and Antonis Pappas, and performed by Antique received the most votes and was selected to represent the nation. Greece performed 22nd out of the 23 countries competing in the contest and placed third with 147 points, marking their highest placement in the annual event to this point. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "This Is Our Night" written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, Craig Porteils and Cameron Giles-Webb and performed by Sakis Rouvas. To select their entry for the 2009 contest, which was held in Moscow, Russia, the Greek national broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) internally selected Rouvas, while his song was chosen through the televised national final Ellinikós Telikós 2009, which consisted of three candidate songs voted upon by the public and a jury. Greece competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, held on 25 May 2002 at Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, Estonia. The Greek broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) organised a public selection process entitled Ellinikós Telikós 2002 to determine its entry for the contest. Held on 26 February 2002 in Athens, the event saw 10 entries compete to be the Greek entry; the results were determined by a combination of jury, SMS and televoting. The song "S.A.G.A.P.O.", written and performed by Michalis Rakintzis received the most votes and was selected to represent the nation. Greece performed fourth out of the 24 countries competing in the contest and placed 17th with 27 points. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Opa", written by Giorgos Alkaios, Giannis Antoniou and Friends Music Factory. The song was performed by Alkaios and Friends. To select their entry for the 2010 contest, which took place in Oslo, Norway, Greek national television broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) organised the national final Ellinikós Telikós 2010 which took place on 12 March 2010. The event was initially to include 10 songs, however there was one withdrawal and two disqualifications prior to the night of the competition. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song "Watch My Dance", written by Giannis Christodoulopoulos and Eleana Vrahali. The song was performed by Loukas Yorkas featuring Stereo Mike. To select their entry for the 2011 contest, which took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, Greek national television broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) organised the national final Ellinikós Telikós 2011 which took place in March 2011. Six competing acts—Antigoni Psihrami, Kokkina Halia, Yorkas, Nikki Ponte, Trimitonio, and Valando Tryfonos—performed their prospective entries live during the televised event, with the winner selected by a combination of a public televote and a panel of judges. Cyprus participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "La La Love" written by Alex Papaconstantinou, Björn Djupström, Alexandra Zakka and Viktor Svensson. The song was performed by Ivi Adamou, who was selected by the Cypriot broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) in August 2011 to represent Cyprus at the 2012 contest in Baku, Azerbaijan. CyBC organised the national final A Song for Ivi on 25 January 2012 to select the Cypriot song. The national final featured three songs and resulted in the selection of "La La Love" as the winning song. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Their selected song "Aphrodisiac" was written by Dimitri Stassos, Mikaela Stenström and Dajana Lööf, and was performed by Eleftheria Eleftheriou, who had previously attempted to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The entry was selected through the televised national final Ellinikós Telikós, organised by the country's public broadcasting service Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) and held on 12 March 2012 at the River West shopping mall in Athens. Due to the debt crisis facing Greece at the time, the record label of the entry was expected to take on the costs of recording and producing the candidate songs. Universal Music Greece was the only label to accept these terms and put forth four competing acts for consideration. The winning act was selected using a combination of jury and televoting. Following the national final, Eleftheriou embarked on a promotional campaign visiting Turkey and the Netherlands. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song "Alcohol Is Free", written by Elias Kozas and Stathis Pahidis. The song was performed by the band Koza Mostra featuring Agathonas Iakovidis. The entry for the 2013 contest, which took place in Malmö, Sweden, was selected through a four-participant national final entitled Eurosong 2013 – a MAD show. Due to budget cuts facing the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) at the time, the selection process was a organised by a private music channel, MAD TV. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "Rise Up", written and performed by Freaky Fortune and featuring RiskyKidd. The Greek entry was selected through the four-participant national final, titled Eurosong 2014 – a MAD show, which was developed by interim Greek broadcaster Dimosia Tileorasi (DT) and organised and produced by the private music channel MAD TV. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "One Last Breath", written by Efthivoulos Theocharous, Maria Elena Kyriakou, Vaggelis Konstantinidis and Evelina Tziora and performed by Kyriakou. The song was selected through the five-participant national final, Eurosong 2015 – NERIT & MAD show, developed by NERIT and organised and produced by the private music channel MAD TV. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Utopian Land" written by Vladimiros Sofianidis and performed by the band Argo. The song was internally selected by the Greek broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) to represent Greece at the 2016 contest in Stockholm, Sweden. Argo were announced as the Greek representatives in February 2016, a month before their song "Utopian Land" was presented. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "This Is Love" written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, Romy Papadea and John Ballard. The song was performed by Demy, who was internally selected by the Greek broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) to represent Greece at the 2017 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. Demy was announced at the Greek representative on 13 January 2017, while a national final was held in order to select the song she would perform. Three songs competed in the national final on 6 March 2017 and a combination of international jury voting and public voting selected "This Is Love" as the winning song. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Oniro mou" written by Aris Kalimeris, Dimitris Stamatiou, Yianna Terzi and Mihalis Papathanasiou and performed by Terzi. A national final was scheduled to be held in order to select the Greek entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal. Five entries were to compete in the final on 22 February 2018 where public voting would exclusively select the winner, however "Oniro mou" performed by Terzi was announced as the Greek entry on 16 February 2018 following the disqualification of four out of the five national final entries. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Better Love" written by Katerine Duska, Leon of Athens, David Sneddon and Phil Cook. The song was performed by Duska, who was internally selected by the Greek broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) to represent Greece at the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel. She was announced as the Greek representative on 14 February 2019, while her song "Better Love" was presented on 6 March 2019. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Greek-Dutch singer Stefania was internally selected by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) to represent the nation with the song "Last Dance", written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, Arcade, and Sharon Vaughn. Stefania was due to compete in the 2020 contest with "Supergirl" before that event's eventual cancellation. Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy. The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) internally selected Amanda Tenfjord to represent the nation with the song "Die Together", written by Tenfjord and Bjørn Helge Gammelsæter. Tenfjord was announced as the Greek representative on 15 December 2021, with her song later presented to the public on 10 March 2022. "What They Say" is a song by Greek singer Victor Vernicos, released on 12 March 2023. The song represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 after Vernicos was internally selected by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), the Greek national broadcaster for the Eurovision Song Contest. Greece is set to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö, Sweden, with "Zari" performed by Marina Satti. The Greek broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) internally selected the Greek representative for the 2024 contest. References
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