Greece to internally select their Eurovision 2019 entry

After a disasterous national final last year and a disappointing result in Lisbon with Yianna Terzi’s Oniro mou, the Greek broadcaster, ERT, have announced that an internal selection will be used to find Greece’s next Eurovision entry.

A disasterous 2018 for Greece

Last year’s Greek national final was…well, the only way to describe it is “disasterous”! If you missed it, here is how it all played out:

In October, ERT opened song submissions for a month, and a jury of eight music industry professionals selected five songs for the national final. The final was due to be held on 22 February, with the songs being released 10 days before and the winner being selected by 100% televoting (a method that we’ve previously found out is a terrible idea!)

However, in the middle of November 2017, ERT decided to disqualify two of the five songs for “not sounding Greek enough”. We saw just how well insisting on having a Greek sound worked for them in Lisbon…

Then, on 15 February, just a week before the national final was due to take place, ERT announced that two of the remaining three record companies had not yet paid the participation fee and they were also disqualified. The next day, ERT confirmed that the Greek national final was cancelled and Yianna Terzi would represent Greece at Eurovision 2018.

“We’ll find the artist, then the song”

After the mess of a national final in 2018, ERT have revealed that they will switch to an internal selection. This will probably save them a lot of stress in the long run. Well done for learning from your past mistakes, Greece!

Maria Koufopoulou, the Director of ERT International Relations, confirmed to OGAE Greece that:

There will not be a competition nor a national final. The broadcaster is going to select the Greek entry internally, using a specially-made jury. We are in talks with several artists at the moment but we can’t say much else. We will firstly choose the artist and then we will search for the perfect song, based on the musical style of the singer.

Maria Koufopoulou

This means that the internal selection will be more based around the artist, and finding the best song for them, rather than simply taking submissions and selecting the best song.

Who could be the Greek representative?

Already in this Eurovision season, there has been a lot of speculation and hint-dropping from ERT surrounding their artist. We previously reported on speculation that ERT had approached Tamta after journalists spotted her at the ERT headquarters. Although, the Cypriot broadcaster have since revealed that she is the Cypriot representative, so we can rule her out. There has also been a lot of hint-dropping that Nikos Ganos could be the Greek representative, particularly responding positively to going to Eurovision in an interview, and quoting Eurovision lyrics on his official Instagram page. Hear his biggest hit, Say My Name, below!

Who would you like ERT to pick as the Greek 2019 representative? Would Nikos Ganos or Tamta (if she had still been available!) bring Greece back to the Eurovision final in 2019?

Let us know in the comments below and on social media @ESCXTRA!