Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025
| Eurovision Song Contest 2025 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participating broadcaster | Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) | |||
| Country |  Greece | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Ethnikós Telikós 2025 | |||
| Selection date(s) | 30 January 2025 | |||
| Selected artist(s) | Klavdia | |||
| Selected song | "Asteromata" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) | Arcade | |||
| Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
Greece will be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with the song "Asteromata", written by Arcade and performed by Klavdia. The Greek participating broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), organised the national final Ethnikós Telikós 2025 in order to select its entry for the contest.
Background
[edit]Prior to the 2025 contest, Greece had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 44 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, it managed to qualify for the final with each of its entries for several years. Between 2004 and 2013, it achieved nine top ten placements in the final. The first entry to not qualify to the final was "Utopian Land" performed by Argo in 2016. Its 16th-place finish in the semi-final marked its worst placing at the contest and led to its absence from the final for the first time since 2000, when it did not send an entry. In the 2018 contest, it failed to qualify for the second time with "Oniro mou" by Yianna Terzi, finishing 14th in the semi-final. After failing to qualify for final for the third time in 2023 with "What They Say" by Victor Vernicos, it returned to the final in 2024 with "Zari" by Marina Satti, placing 11th with 126 points.[1]
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country.[2] ERT predecessor, National Radio Television Foundation (EIRT) debuted in the contest in 1974 and then ERT participated from 1975 until 2013, when the broadcaster was shut down by a government directive. It was 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] before reverting to the ERT name by the new government in June 2015.[6][7] The Greek broadcaster had selected its entries in the past both internally and through the national final format Ellinikós Telikós. ERT confirmed its intention to participate in the 2025 contest on 14 September 2024, and announced on 18 September that a national final would be organised for the first time since 2017 to select its representative.[8][9]
Before Eurovision
[edit]Ethnikós Telikós 2025
[edit]Ethnikós Telikós 2025 was the national final developed by ERT to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. The competition took place on 30 January 2025 at the Christmas Theater in Galatsi, hosted by Sakis Rouvas (who represented Greece in 2004 and in 2009 and hosted Eurovision 2006) and Helena Paparizou (who represented Greece in 2001 as part of Antique, and won in 2005), with Fokas Evangelinos serving as the artistic director.[10][11] The show was broadcast on ERT1, ERT World, Second Programme and Voice of Greece, as well as online on ERT's over-the-top media service ERTFLIX International and the Eurovision Song Contest's official YouTube channel.[12][13] The national final was watched by 833,000 viewers in Greece with a market share of 18.3%, making it the highest rated show of that day.[14]
Competing entries
[edit]On 18 October 2024, ERT opened a submission period where artists and composers were able to submit their entries for consideration by the broadcaster by 10 November 2024. Artists were required to be Greek citizens, be permanent residents in Greece or be of Greek descent, while songwriters could be of any nationality and submit up to two songs.[15] 187 songs were received by the submission deadline and a seven-member jury selected twelve entries to participate in the national final alongside three backup entries.[16] The jury consisted of Michalis Hatzigiannis (composer and singer), Yiannis Dimitriadis (journalist and radio producer), Kleopatra Eleftheriadou (soprano and actress), Stefania (singer), Nektarios Tyrakis (lyricist), Maria Hatzigianni (director) and Dimitris Chorianopoulos (music producer).[17] The competing entries were revealed on 10 January 2025 during the ERT1 show Proian se eidon; Salina Gavala and Tsiak were disqualified before the scheduled announcement as they had previously made the title of their song public, which went against the rules of the competition, and were replaced by Nafsica Gavrilaki.[10][18] Among the selected competing artists was Constantinos Christoforou who previously represented Cyprus in 1996, 2002, and 2005, as well as Xannova Xan, who previously represented Greece in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005 as Kalli.[19]
Entry disqualified Replacement entry
| Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Andy Nicolas | "Lost My Way" |
|
| Barbz | "Sirens" |
|
| Constantinos Christoforou and Kostas Karafotis | "Paradeisos" (Παράδεισος) |
|
| Dinamiss | "Odyssey" |
|
| Evangelia | "Vale" (Βάλε) |
|
| Georgina Kalais and John Vlaseros | "High Road" |
|
| Klavdia | "Asteromata" (Αστερομάτα) | Arcade |
| Kostas Ageris | "Gi mou" (Γη μου) | Kostas Ageris |
| Nafsica Gavrilaki | "Unhurt Me" |
|
| Rikki | "Elevator (Up and Down)" |
|
| Salina Gavala and Tsiak | "Tha matho na agapo" (Θα μάθω να αγαπώ) |
|
| Thanos Lambrou | "Free Love" |
|
| Xannova Xan | "Play It!" |
|
| Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) |
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Panagiotis Tsakalakos | "Money (Priceless Love)" |
|
| Stavros Salampasopoulos | "Superhero" |
|
Final
[edit]The final took place on 30 January 2025, with the running order decided by a draw on 20 January.[20] Twelve songs competed and the winner, "Asteromata" performed by Klavdia, was selected by a combination of public voting conducted through SMS (50%), Greek jury voting (25%) and international jury voting (25%).[21][17] The Greek jury consisted of Michalis Hatzigiannis (composer and singer), Jenny Melita (journalist and presenter), Fotis Sergoulopoulos (presenter), Margarita Mytilineou (director of the radio stations Ellinikos and Pride) and Giannis Christodoulopoulos (composer), while the international jury consisted of Martin Holmen (presenter and radio producer at NRK), Olivier Auclair (Head of Entertainment at RTBF), Léa Ivanne (French singer-songwriter and vocal coach), Wilkin William Edmund Roy (director of music programmes at the BBC) and Simona Martorelli (director of International Relations and European Affairs at RAI).[17]
In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show was opened by hosts Sakis Rouvas and Helena Paparizou performing three Eurovision entries accompanied by an orchestra: "Waterloo" (Sweden 1974), "Hold Me Now" (Ireland 1987), and "Krassi, thalassa ke t' agori mou" (Greece 1974), followed by Marina Satti (who represented Greece in 2024) performing her entry "Zari". During the interval, Rouvas performed his entries, "Shake It" (2004) and "This Is Our Night" (2009), Paparizou performed her entries "Die for You" (2001) and "My Number One" (2005), and Theo Evan (who is set to represent Cyprus in 2025) performed "Fuego", the song which represented Cyprus in 2018.[22]
| Draw | Artist | Song | Jury | Televote | Total | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greek | Intl. | ||||||
| 1 | Rikki | "Elevator (Up and Down)" | 8 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 7 |
| 2 | Thanos Lambrou | "Free Love" | 1 | 7 | 4 | 12 | 9 |
| 3 | Kostas Ageris | "Gi mou" | 7 | 1 | 10 | 18 | 6 |
| 4 | Andy Nicolas | "Lost My Way" | 3 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 10 |
| 5 | Klavdia | "Asteromata" | 12 | 8 | 24 | 44 | 1 |
| 6 | Constantinos Christoforou and Kostas Karafotis | "Paradeisos" | 5 | 0 | 8 | 13 | 8 |
| 7 | Georgina Kalais and John Vlaseros | "High Road" | 0 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| 8 | Barbz | "Sirens" | 6 | 10 | 14 | 30 | 3 |
| 9 | Evangelia | "Vale" | 10 | 12 | 20 | 42 | 2 |
| 10 | Dinamiss | "Odyssey" | 4 | 4 | 16 | 24 | 4 |
| 11 | Nafsica Gavrilaki | "Unhurt Me" | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 12 | Xannova Xan | "Play It!" | 2 | 6 | 12 | 20 | 5 |
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Greece". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Retrieved 9 August 2023.
- ^ a b Floras, Stella (11 June 2013). "Greece shuts down public broadcaster ERT". ESCToday. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
- ^ Savaricas, Nathalie (11 July 2013). "Greece's state-run TV service resumes with a blast from the past". The Independent. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
- ^ "Greece's replacement public broadcaster launched". Deutsche Welle. 4 May 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
- ^ Paravantes, Maria (11 June 2005). "Joy In Greece Over Eurovision Win". Billboard. Vol. 117, no. 24. p. 17. Retrieved 16 January 2009 – via Google Books.
- ^ Maltezou, Renee (28 April 2015). "In symbolic move, Greece to reopen shuttered state broadcaster". Reuters. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
- ^ "Greece's state broadcaster ERT back on air after two years". BBC News. 11 June 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
- ^ Jiandani, Sanjay (Sergio) (14 September 2024). "Greece: ERT confirms participation at Eurovision 2025". ESCToday. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
- ^ Bijuvignesh, Darshan (18 September 2024). "🇬🇷 Greece: National Final to Select Eurovision 2025 Entry". Eurovoix. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
- ^ a b "Eurovision 2025: Τα 12 τραγούδια του Εθνικού Τελικού" [Eurovision 2025: The 12 songs of the National Final] (in Greek). ERT. 10 January 2025. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
- ^ "Οι κορυφαίοι Έλληνες σταρ Σάκης Ρουβάς και Έλενα Παπαρίζου θα παρουσιάσουν τον Εθνικό Τελικό για τη Eurovision 2025" [Top Greek stars Sakis Rouvas and Elena Paparizou will present the National Final for Eurovision 2025] (in Greek). ERT. 14 January 2025. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
- ^ a b "Eurovision 2025: Η Klavdia με το τραγούδι «Αστερομάτα» θα εκπροσωπήσει την Ελλάδα στον Διαγωνισμό" [Eurovision 2025: Klavdia with the song "Asteromata" will represent Greece in the Contest] (in Greek). ERT. 30 January 2025. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
- ^ "Greece 2025: Your guide to 'Ethnikós Telikós'". eurovision.tv. EBU. 29 January 2025. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
- ^ Conte, Davide (31 January 2025). "🇬🇷 Greece: 833,000 Viewers for Ethnikos Telikos 2025". Eurovoix. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
- ^ "Προσκληση εκδηλωσης ενδιαφεροντος για τη συμμετοχη στον 69ο διαγωνισμο τραγουδιου της Eurovision" (PDF). ERT (in gr). Retrieved 10 January 2024.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ Granger, Anthony (15 November 2024). "🇬🇷 Greece: Selects for Eurovision 2025 on January 29". Eurovoix. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
- ^ a b c "Eurovision 2025: Με την Klavdia και το «Αστερομάτα» η Ελλάδα" [Eurovision 2025: Greece with Klavdia and "Asteromata"] (in Greek). ERT. 31 January 2025. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
- ^ "Greece 2025: National final entries released". eurovision.tv. 10 January 2025. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
- ^ Farren, Neil (10 January 2025). "🇬🇷 Greece: Eurovision 2025 National Final Artists Revealed". Eurovoix. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
- ^ a b "Εθνικός Τελικός 2025: Η σειρά εμφάνισης των 12 φιναλίστ" [National Final 2025: The order of appearance of the 12 finalists]. eurovision.ert.gr (in Greek). ERT. 20 January 2025. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
- ^ "Πώς θα ψηφίσουμε στον Εθνικό Τελικό" [How will we vote in the National Final?]. eurovision.ert.gr (in Greek). ERT. 30 January 2025. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
- ^ Sanabria-Rangel, Alvaro (30 January 2025). "Greece: Klavdia wins Ethnikós Telikós 2025 and will represent the country in Basel!". EurovisionFun. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
- ^ Ntinos, Fotios (2 February 2025). "Greece: The detailed results of Ethnikós Telikós 2025!". EurovisionFun. Retrieved 2 February 2025.