Greek broadcaster ERT opened submissions to its new national selection, and revealed more details on how Greece will select its act for Eurovision in Basel next year.
A jury pre-selection of twelve songs and three reserve
ERT has already opened submissions for the show, and the window closes on November 10th. Candidates must submit songs, which have to follow the rules set by the Eurovision Song Contest (no more than 3-minute-long, no more than 6 people on stage, September 1st deadline, etc.).
Apart from these general conditions, ERT also set a few additional ones :
- Songs must be written in Greek and/or English
- The performers must either have Greek citizenship or descent from at least one parent, or reside permanently in Greece
- The songwriters may have any citizenship but may not write/compose for more than two songs within the pre-selection process, and may not have more than one song in the final show
- Lyrics should not contain “profanity or any other expression that is immoral, offensive, obscene, defamatory or deemed inappropriate or otherwise offensive to public morals or decency“, with ERT being the sole judge of that criteria
A panel of at least five judges will select up to twelve songs for the final, and three backups/reserves, without knowing the name of the artists. The rules of the selection require these judges to be independent from the artists and not to be working with a record company.
A unique show to select the Greek entry
ERT will then determine the calendar for the show, including song reveals (which should take place in a separate broadcast), promotion and the selection show itself. There will only be a single final to choose the winner, in which the twelve candidates will perform their act live.
The voting will be split in three: a national televote (50%), a Greek jury (25%) and an international jury (25%). Juries will be made up of at least five professionals, “recognised in their field”, such as musicians or journalists.
The televote will be collected through phone calls and text messages, and will be converted on a fixed scale, similarly to the televote in Benidorm Festival in Spain, or in Melodifestivalen in Sweden during the 2000’s. The scale is similar to the one used in Eurovision, but doubled. This means the televote winner will get 24 points, the runner up will get 20 points, and so on, following this logic : 24, 20, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2. The songs placing 11th and 12th will get no points from the televote.
The juries will give points in a similar manner, but separately, each jury giving points on the classic 12-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale, with the two acts coming 11th and 12th getting no points either.
If a tie occurs, the song with the most televote points will take the victory. And in the unlikely event of a televote failure, if two songs tie for 1st place with the juries, the act with the most points from the Greek jury will be declared the winner.
A return to a national selection after almost 10 years
Greece used to select its entry through national selections in the past, more or less regularly starting in 1979, then every year between 2005 and 2015. The last public selection was in 2017, but was only a song selection for internally-selected Demy.
Since then, all entries have been internally selected, with contrasted results: non-qualification in 2018 and 2023 and a 23rd place in the 2019 final, but finishing 10th in 2021, 8th in 2022 and 11th in Malmö this year.
Will a selection be able to bring Greece back into the Top 10, or even the Top 5? Who would you like to see in the show? Tell us more in the comments below or on social media at @escxtra!
