Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The Greek national broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) announced that they will have an internal selection.[1] Katerine Duska was selected internally to represent Greece at the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel with the song "Better Love" written by herself, Leon of Athens, David Sneddon and Phil Cook.

Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country	Greece
National selection
Selection process	Internal selection
Selection date(s)	Artist: 14 February 2019 Song: 6 March 2019
Selected entrant	Katerine Duska
Selected song	"Better Love"
Selected songwriter(s)	Katerine Duska Leon of Athens David Sneddon Phil Cook
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (5th, 185 points)
Final result	21st, 74 points
Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2018 • 2019 • 2020►

Background

Prior to the 2018 contest, Greece had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-eight times since their debut in 1974.[2] The nation has won the contest on one occasion in 2005 with the song "My Number One" performed by Helena Paparizou. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Greece has managed to thus far qualify to the final with each of their entries. Between 2004 and 2011, the nation achieved eight consecutive top ten placements in the final. To this point, Greece in 2016 with Argo's "Utopian Land" failed to qualify from the semi-finals for the first time ever, being absent from the final for the first time since 2000. This was Greece's worst result at the contest. However, Greece returned to the final in 2017 with Demy's song "This Is Love". 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.

The Greek national broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), broadcasts the event within Greece and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. 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 with the interim Dimosia Tileorasi (DT) and then later by the New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television (NERIT) broadcaster.[3][4] Following the January 2015 Greek legislative election, a draft proposal was initiated to reinstate ERT as the public Greek broadcaster. On 28 April 2015, the draft was approved and signed into law by the Hellenic Parliament, resulting in the renaming of NERIT to ERT; ERT began broadcasting once again on 11 June 2015.[5][6] ERT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on 28 August 2015.[7] The Greek broadcaster has used various methods to select the Greek entry in the past, such as internal selections and televised national finals to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. Since 2010, the Greek entry has been selected via a national final that featured a competition among several artists and songs with the votes of an expert jury and a public televote deciding the Greek Eurovision entry.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On January, the Greek broadcaster ERT announced its provisional plans on Eurovision 2019, declaring that a national final show would not be held this year. Later on January, the channel revealed the names of the people who would consist the six-members jury panel which would be involved in the artist’s selection.[8] The jury consisted of:

• Dimitris Papadimitriou – Music composer – ERT Board Member (President)
• Fotis Apergis – Journalist
• Petros Adam – Music producer
• Maria Koufopoulou – ERT Director of International Relations
• Sofia Dranidou – ERT Head of European & International Affairs – International Relations
• Yiannis Petridis – Music producer

On 14 February 2019, ERT announced Katerine Duska as the Greek representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The song was released on 6 March 2019.[9]

Promotion

Katerine Duska made several appearances across Europe to promote "Better Love" as the Greek Eurovision entry. She performed at Eurovision in Concert on 6 April 2019 at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, hosted by Cornald Maas and Marlayne, to over 4500 spectators,[10] as well as the Eurovision Pre-Party Madrid on 20 April.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (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 ten 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 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Greece was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[11]

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Greece was set to perform in position 16, following the entry from Portugal and preceding the entry from San Marino.[12]

Semi-final

Greece performed sixteenth in the first semi-final, following Portugal and preceding San Marino. At the end of the show, Greece was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Greece placed fifth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 185 points: 54 points from the televoting and 131 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. 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. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member, as well as the nation's televoting results, were released shortly after the grand final.[13]

Points awarded to Greece

Points awarded to Greece (Semi-final 1)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Cyprus  San Marino		Australia
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Portugal	Belgium  Georgia	France	Serbia  Spain	Hungary  Montenegro
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Cyprus  Israel  Montenegro  San Marino	Georgia  Slovenia  Spain	Iceland	Australia  Finland	Belgium
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Belarus  Czech Republic  France	Estonia  Hungary		Serbia

Points awarded to Greece (final)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Cyprus	San Marino
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
			Albania
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Cyprus	Russia	San Marino		Azerbaijan
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
	Albania  Malta	Belarus  Belgium

Points awarded by Greece

Semi-final 1 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Cyprus  Cyprus 10 points  Georgia  Australia 8 points  Australia  Czech Republic 7 points  Iceland  Belarus 6 points  Serbia  Serbia 5 points  Slovenia  Montenegro 4 points  San Marino  Finland 3 points  Estonia  San Marino 2 points  Belarus  Iceland 1 point  Czech Republic  Slovenia

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Cyprus  Cyprus 10 points  Italy  Russia 8 points  Russia  Azerbaijan 7 points   Switzerland  Italy 6 points  Netherlands  San Marino 5 points  Albania  Malta 4 points  Spain  Slovenia 3 points  Australia  Albania 2 points  Iceland  Australia 1 point  France  North Macedonia

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Greek jury:[13]

• Nikolaos Nikolakopoulos – Chairperson – programme director radio station
• Eirini Karagianni – opera singer
• Manolis Pantelidakis – costume and set designer
• Styliani Tyraki – singer, vocal coach
• Athanasios Alevras – actor, performer

Split voting results from Greece (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		N. Nikolakopoulos	E. Karagianni	M. Pantelidakis	S. Tyraki	A. Alevras	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Cyprus	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	1	12
02	Montenegro	5	7	6	13	5	6	5	16
03	Finland	2	4	15	12	12	7	4	15
04	Poland	7	9	11	9	8	12		13
05	Slovenia	13	15	8	3	10	10	1	6	5
06	Czech Republic	3	2	16	4	13	3	8	10	1
07	Hungary	16	16	14	15	14	16		14
08	Belarus	8	10	3	7	4	4	7	9	2
09	Serbia	4	11	10	8	2	5	6	5	6
10	Belgium	6	13	4	16	16	13		12
11	Georgia	14	6	13	11	9	15		2	10
12	Australia	10	12	2	2	3	2	10	3	8
13	Iceland	11	8	7	6	7	9	2	4	7
14	Estonia	12	14	9	5	11	14		8	3
15	Portugal	9	3	12	10	15	11		11
16	Greece
17	San Marino	15	5	5	14	6	8	3	7	4

Split voting results from Greece (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		N. Nikolakopoulos	E. Karagianni	M. Pantelidakis	S. Tyraki	A. Alevras	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	13	3	8	9	6	6	5	22
02	Albania	11	7	7	7	14	8	3	6	5
03	Czech Republic	22	17	3	17	21	13		20
04	Germany	23	12	14	24	24	23		24
05	Russia	2	2	1	1	2	2	10	3	8
06	Denmark	25	22	23	23	25	25		19
07	San Marino	5	9	6	21	4	5	6	21
08	North Macedonia	16	5	12	8	11	10	1	15
09	Sweden	7	23	24	11	19	18		18
10	Slovenia	20	18	9	4	5	7	4	13
11	Cyprus	1	1	2	2	1	1	12	1	12
12	Netherlands	6	11	10	10	17	12		5	6
13	Greece
14	Israel	15	13	4	22	16	14		23
15	Norway	17	25	18	19	10	22		11
16	United Kingdom	14	20	25	16	23	24		25
17	Iceland	18	16	22	6	15	17		9	2
18	Estonia	21	24	16	12	13	21		16
19	Belarus	19	19	13	13	7	16		17
20	Azerbaijan	4	8	5	5	12	3	8	12
21	France	12	4	21	20	22	15		10	1
22	Italy	3	10	15	14	3	4	7	2	10
23	Serbia	24	14	11	18	18	20		14
24	Switzerland	9	21	19	15	20	19		4	7
25	Australia	10	15	20	3	9	9	2	8	3
26	Spain	8	6	17	25	8	11		7	4

References

1. https://escxtra.com/2019/01/06/greece-2019-internal-selection/
2. "Greece | Country profile | Eurovision Song Contest". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
3. Savaricas, Nathalie (11 July 2013). "Greece's state-run TV service resumes with a blast from the past". independent.co.uk. The Independent. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
4. "Greece's replacement public broadcaster launched". dw.com. Deutsche Welle. 4 May 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
5. Maltezou, Renee (28 April 2015). "In symbolic move, Greece to reopen shuttered state broadcaster". reuters.com. Reuters. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
6. "Greece's state broadcaster ERT back on air after two years". bbc.com. BBC News. 11 June 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
7. "Συμφωνία ΕΡΤ - Forthnet για τα στιγμιότυπα της Super League". enimerosi24.gr (in Greek). Enimerosi24. 28 August 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
8. Agadellis, Stratos. "Greece: Katerine Duska to Tel Aviv!". esctoday.com. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
9. https://www.esc-plus.com/katerine-duska-to-represent-greece-at-eurovision-2019/
10. "This was Eurovision in Concert 2019 in Amsterdam". Eurovision.tv. 6 April 2019.
11. Jordan, Paul (28 January 2019). "Eurovision 2019: Which country takes part in which Semi-Final?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
12. "Exclusive: This is the Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final running order!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
13. Groot, Evert (30 April 2019). "Exclusive: They are the judges who will vote in Eurovision 2019!". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2019.