Greece: ERT selects 5 candidates for national final

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani 2,054 views

ERT, the Greek national broadcaster has selected 5 candidates for the the forthcoming 2018 Greek Eurovision national final.

Last month, ERT sent out an invite to national record companies in order to submit a proposal with potential candidates for the 2018 Greek Eurovision national final. The key requirement was that the song had to be entirely in Greek with Greek ethno-influence and sound.

The broadcaster received a total of 20 entries from 13 different local record companies for the national final.

Hereafter a special committee evaluated all submitted entries and whittled them down to a total of 5 songs, which will fight for the golden ticket to Lisbon at the 2018 Greek Eurovision national final.

ERT told ESCToday:

An internal artistic committee has indeed examined 20 candidate songs, submitted by record companies following the letter sent earlier. The committee focused on five songs. Their recommendation will be examined by a working group, that will be setup  in order to determine the next steps towards the organization of a national final. 

Whilst ERT has not confirmed the names of the candidates officially, it is speculated the following 5 acts have been whittled down and made it to the national final:

  • Areti Ketime – Don’t forget the Sun
  • Chorostalites – Apo tin Thraki os tin Kriti
  • Duo Fina  Idio Tempo
  • Gianna Terzi  To oniro mou
  • Tony Vlachos – Baila Jazz 

The 2018 Greek Eurovision national final is scheduled to be held in Athens by the end of February.

Greece in Eurovision

Greece debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with Marinella and has won the event in 2005 with Helena Paparizou‘s My number one, thus bringing the contest for the very first time on Greek soil in 2006.

The country has been one of the most successful countries in the competition in recent years, having not missed a single Grand Final with the exception of 2016 when it didn’t qualify to the Grand Final in Stockholm.

In 2017, Demy was selected internally to represent Greece at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv. She made he nation proud with her entry This is love. Despite an extraordinary performance she placed 19th in the Grand Final.

The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 8, 10 and 12 May at the Altice Arena, in Lisbon, Portugal.