There has been much buzz concerning the 2018 Greek national final lately. According to the latest reports doing the rounds, there have been further developments in Greece following a meeting between the Greek national broadcaster ERT and three shortlisted record companies.
Greek news portal News.it reports that the 2018 Greek national final has been postponed to Thursday 22 February from the initial planned date Friday 16 February, and has disclosed more details regarding the upcoming 2018 Greek Eurovision selection:
- The three competing record companies have to submit a guarantee of 90,000 euros to ERT in order the cover costs of their respective Eurovision participation in case their song is chosen to represent Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest
- The record companies have to submit their respective contracts and finalised proposals to ERT by 9 February
- The competing songs will be officially released and presented to the public on 12 February
- The 2018 Greek national final’s provisional date has been set on 22 February
- All three acts will perform live during the show instead of the initially planned pre-recorded video presentations
- The 2018 Greek Eurovision entry will be selected via a 100% public deliberation
- The show will be held at ERT’s studios in Athens
We must note that ERT has not made any official announcement regarding the 2018 Greek national final and is expected to reveal further details in due course.
The 2018 Greek Eurovision project
Last year, 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 songs from 14 different local record companies for the national final.
Hereafter an artistic committee evaluated all submitted entries and whittled them down to a total of 5 songs. These songs were then handed over to a special working group committee at ERT in order to deliberate the next steps towards organizing a national final.
ERT’s special working group committee whittled down the songs from 5 to 3 as 2 of the entries did not fully comply with the 2018 Greek Eurovision national selection’s requirements and rules.
The candidates
- Areti Ketime – Don’t forget the Sun – (Spice Records)
- Chorostalites – Apo tin Thraki os tin Kriti – (Spider Records)
- Gianna Terzi – To oniro mou – (Panik Records)
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.