Three years ago, she represented The Netherlands at Junior Eurovision. But now there’s speculation that the Greek Dutch singer Stefania Liberakakis will return to the Eurovision stage, this time representing Greece at Eurovision 2020. OGAE Greece claims that Greek broadcaster ERT has internally selected Stefania for Rotterdam.
The 17-year-old singer has been on the list of rumoured acts to represent Greece this year, but now it appears that Stefania has made the cut. OGAE Greece’s sources say that broadcaster ERT has internally selected the Dutch-born singer.
And the former Junior Eurovision star reportedly has the so-called “Dream Team” on her side. OGAE Greece say that Stefania Greek Eurovision maestro Dimitris Kontopoulos will be involved with the song production, while the legendary Greek choreographer Fokas Evangelinos will take care of the staging.
This would be third Greek entry the “Dream Team” has been involved in. Kontopoulos and Evangelinos were previously behind Sakis Rouvas’ “This Is Our Night” in 2009 and Demy’s “This is Love” in 2017.
If Stefania is selected, she will be the fourth female artist to represent Greece in the past four years. This follows Demy, Yianna Terzi and Katerine Duska. As a member of the Greek diaspora, Stefania follows the Greek Swedish singer Helena Paparizou, who won Eurovision for Greece in 2005.
Broadcaster ERT has not made any comment on its act for Eurovision 2020. However, OGAE Greece says an official announcement is expected in “a matter of days”.
Who is Stefania Liberakakis?
Stefania Liberakakis is a Dutch-born singer and actor, with Greek ancestry. She’s been on our radar since July as a potential act for Eurovision 2020.
Stefania came to fame in 2014, when she participated on The Voice Kids. After wowing judges with her audition performance of Alicia Keys’ “No One”, Stefania made it as far as the Battle round before being eliminated. She also sang as part of the Dutch children’s choir Kinderen voor Kinderen.
In 2016, Stefania represented The Netherlands at Junior Eurovision in Malta, as part of the three-piece girl group Kisses. Their upbeat song “Kisses and Dancin'” placed eighth in the contest.
More recently, Stefania has worked on her solo pop career. Last month, Stefania released “Turn Around”, a sophisticated contemporary pop track which could be an indication of the type of music she would perform at Eurovision.
Stefania has also been working on her pop career in Greece. Earlier this year, she performed at the Mad VMA music awards, as part of an all-girl cover of Daddy Yankee’s “Con calma” along with Ilenia Williams and Konnie Metaxa. The video of the performance has clocked up over two million views, inspiring comments from fans wanting Stefania for Eurovision.
As well as singing, Stefania also has an acting career. She has starred in the Dutch high school mockumentary Brugklas, the recent dystopian action film De club van lelijke kinderen (The club of ugly children) and made an appearance in the teen comedy 100% Coco New York.
What do you think? Should Stefania represent Greece in Rotterdam? What sort of song should she perform? Tell us your thoughts below!
I did not know Lana Rhoades could sing… 😉
Just stop saying all the time that Eurovision ruined Demy….. When she went to Eurovision, her career and popularity in Greece had already fallen in comparison to other years…. She used to be a teen idol from 2011 to 2014 but after her popularity faded…. 2015 – 2017 were very average years for her career and after Eurovision most Greeks have forgotten her…. But again i think it was her choice cause’ don’t forget that after eurovision she stated that she wanted to finish her studies in Law….
« Star » ???? lol
Some more news about this is that they have already proposed 3 songs which are all in English: the first is a mid tempo, the second is a dance reggaeton (but nothing similar with what we’ve seen in the past years) and the last one is a dance pop song with ethnic elements. As I’ve read from a guy (dont know if it’s TRUE but I want to believe it is) the dance reggaeton has a hard beat drop and it’s also the favorite one. As a Greek from the diaspora I’m very proud of ERT and wish good luck… Read more »
If she gets Sergey level songs from the dream team I’m all for her participation. She’s a compelling performer. My fears are based solely on the dream team giving terrible songs to Demy and killing her career since Kyiv. So if the songs are good I’m happy.
True, demi unfortunately hasnt been a big name in greece since 2017 and I dont hear her songs so often on the radio so let’s hope stefania will get a song which can bring us back to our golden times
No I haven’t but I read from a guy abiut the dance reggaeton, I hope it’s true:(
she looks like the ariana grande impersonator i’ve been wishin for. give us an urban bop, greece !
Damn u wiwibloggs getting kisses & dancin’ stuck in my head again.
Turn Around was released in November and is 2:59…if ERT have chosen Stefania she would have a chance of scoring a decent result with that song if she can pull it off live
why does Greece “deserve” a top ten finish. they had a very good track record for many years but NEWSFLASH, that doesn’t last forever. Yall were placing top 10 every year in the early 2000s, we are now entering 2020, it’s a different time.
So Foureira wasn’t chosen, neither was Tamara but an unknown from elsewhere is good enough for ERT. Are Greek artists just not interested or is ERT that inept. There a lot of talent in Greek music so it’s a shame that talent isn’t being taken advantage of.
There are so many good artists based in Greece, ERT just ignores them!!
Given that Tamta scored a middling result but is still going well career wise I honestly think she wouldn’t mind going to ESC again for Greece. I think Eleni wouldn’t because she seems satisfied with being a runner up and getting a country its best ever and only podium result, but Tamta may be open to singing for Greece if ERT picked her.
She’s not an unknown from elsewhere. 1) she represented Netherlands a few years back at junior Eurovision and 2) she’s a member of the Greek diaspora
All these Greek fans are TOXIC! They are trying to put down a 17 year old she is still a kid. I have heard her songs before and they are amazing and I’m sure she will be able to get lots of votes from the younger audience. STOP COMPLAINING!
She is still a kid? Now that is a lame excuse.. and no one attacked the girl, it’s all ERT’s fault.
how is it their fault. they may have selected Stefania and i see nothing wrong with that, i think its a good thing.
It seems like a two-in-one package deal with the Kontopoulos team taking on both Greece and Cyprus next year. In both cases with young casting-show products without any real creative input in all of this.
Boring!
Absolutely !
Oh my God soooooo boring
Her music video for ‘Turn Around’ was actually shot in Rotterdam 😀
She’s talented and charismatic. But I hope that they won’t make her work with the same suspects again. :/ They have given us some really good entries in the past (Ukraine 2008, Azerbaijan 2013) but lately they are just running out of ideas. Good luck to Greece nevertheless.
Russia 2016 and Moldova 2018 where also brilliant.
Dear Greeks, Stop complaining. The broadcaster is doing an internal selection because it cannot afford a national final (which was giving very subpar results since 2012). Yes the internal selections haven’t gone well, but you have been fan favorites for 3 years running, save 2016. The way some of you are acting is like you are owed A top 10 placement and that simply isn’t true. It could be so much worse, you could be San Marino or Belarus, nations who consistently struggle to qualify. From 2001 to 2011 you had one of the strongest track records in ESC. Its… Read more »
@Thomas
So true.
This is exactly what I said before.
They are acting like God owes them a top 10 placing every year.
They have a young, charismatic artist, with a powerful voice and a very strong team working with her and they still complain.
Kostas Martakis was also on my “wishlist”.
It was just confirmed by ANT1 News (Greek Channel)..
I am so disappointed of my country…
You would be no matter what they choose….every year the same negative attitude from the very beginning from most greek fans…..nisafi pia!
When will Greece and Russia finally understand that the DreamTeam’s golden times has gone?! Their music sounds like something straight out of 2000-2002. Okay, Sergey did well in 2019 but let’s be honest his final result was the weirdest thing ever. He has only got 12 televoting points from all the former Sovietic republics plus San Marino (shocking, isnt it), Albania (they awarded only 2 points to him in the SF), Israel and Czech Republic.
I hope you understand that what you are saying doesn’t really make sense? First of all, “scream” had nothing to do with music that comes from 2000-2002. It was a very emotional ballad that could have been the soundtrack of any movie.
And then why shouldn’t a broadcaster work with them when 80% of their work in top 10? Because you, an unknown user from no where, doesn’t like their songs?
Because we are boring with still the same songs by these Greek people, Kirkorov etc. We want something new. And yes, their music is very old fashioned.
No one really cares who the authors are.
Only other songwriters that are jealous. Are you one of those?
Stop using different accounts to comment and upvote/downvote comments. SMH
It is you that has commented with 3 different usernames at this post not me :-)))))))
Reading from another wiwiblogs article about her…..”She represents a vision of Europe without borders and embodies the Eurovision theme of celebrating diversity.” Considering there is so much effort around Europe to eradicate nations’ character and traditions, I get why some ‘modern’ or anti-Greek people would (or might) send her.
So she is the best person to hold the flag of, probably, the proudest nation on earth, Greece? Really?
“Eradicate nations”
Calm it down.
Please read again what I wrote…
Spot on!
Sounds like we will get a modern, young, pop banger! And I am in it!
me too – I think she will do a really good job for Greece.
Another victim of the DreamTeamMaffia. Yikes. See you in 2021, Greece.
Bring back Opa singer from 2010
Somehow the Greeks seem to think she’s a star in Holland and she has the Dutch televote sewn up, but apart from teenage girls I reckon nobody knows her. She’ll get some sympathy votes though.
Demy’s career hasnt recovered yet from the 2017 fiasco, dream team better have something good for this year.
Whenever Kontopoulos takes part for Greece writes the most unispiring,unoriginal and generic songs. I guess money are a motivating force….
Oh you Greeks complain all the time about everything. We are so fed up with this. It’s just a song contest. You have missed the final only twice and you never placed last thanks to Cyprus.
So please just shut up. Demy qualified and she came a decent 19th place.
Who are you to tell me to shut up? I want the best for my country and yes 19th place is low for a country that was for almost 10 years in the top 10 and has a descent music industry. Spare me the lecture felicia
Being 19th among 43 countries is a very decent result; So stop complaining. No one owes to Greece a top 10 finish every year. Your diaspora was voting, as they did for Turkey, and that is why you always placed so high. Now with the juries they stopped voting.
Stefania is a beautiful powerful young singer with a great voice. She is very popular here with the teens. She has the strongest eurovision team working with her, so just enjoy the moment.
Being 19th out of 43 countries is a decent result.
You Greeks always think that someone owes you.
You have a great young powerful good looking singer representing you.You have the support of the strongest team of Eurovision, and you still complain.
Give us a break.
Good job dowvoting me with your different mails looser
why does Greece “deserve” a top ten finish. they had a very good track record for many years but NEWSFLASH, that doesn’t last forever. Yall were placing top 10 every year in the early 2000s, we are now entering 2020 its a different time.
No one here claimed that Greece would “deserve” the top 10 every year but every Greek fan would wish for Greece to be top 1 (one) every year. So what? Come one! Wishing the best for one’s country isn’t something like claiming good results out of bad entries. Greece, actually, had enough very good ones which were underrated.
I think that if she keeps her teenage look (and they won’t try to turn her into a diva) and she sings a pop banger she can do VERY well.
Eurovision Song Contest tier falls down. Pink youngsters represents countries. Let it roll on JESC.
As a Greek, seeing another internal selection of an unknown singer is disappointing. There are many talented Greek singers that the Greek audience wants to represent us (Ian stratis, Melisses, vaggelis kakouriotis), but ERT keeps neglecting the most watched program on the Greek TV . It’s sad.
Duncan was unknown here , he was internally selected and he won.
comparing Duncan with an unknown girl without any studies in music is out of place.
She actually has a lot of experience, even though she is still this young. She has been performing in musicals and stuff, did the Voice kids, Junior Eurovision…
Duncan was chosen with Arcade. It was not a blind pick. Song was already there and he wrote it.
I’d like to see Greece broadening it’s selection process by involving the public. I get that countries like UK and Spain decided to go internal for a change. In the same way, I believe that Greece and Ireland could host a national final to try something new. I am positive that the Greek NF would have a lot of diverse music and that the people would be pleased to participate.
Melisses would be great !
A rock group stiil is missing so far in the participants for Rotterdam. I don´t want that “celebrate diversity” is a only a farce. In my opinion are girls with 17 years too young for the stage of ESC. She should wait for a while.
Melisses would be great agree. Greece has the most beautiful male voices in the world imo (along with that language) and we rarely see that at Esc. Only Loucas in 2011 as far I can remember. I also really loved the amazing Alcohol is free in 2013 xd.
A lot of musical styles in Europe we haven´t seen patricipating at ESC yet. It´s a pity !
Because of this fact (there are still another…) I´m not keep on wondering that ESC has not the biggest reputation outside the fandom.
A boy band would be great for change! The last time Greece sent a bunch of guys singing ‘Alcohol is free’ they did quite well….
actually the boyband One who represented Cyprus in 2002 send a song in ERT. But they have been inactive for many years, they couldnt represent a country
I’m greek audience and don’t want either Ian, Melisses or Kakouriotis to represent me. Internal selection is the ONLY way for a broadcaster like ERT and they’ll keep doing it til they get it right. I don’t think this year will be a success but please spare us with the Ian or Melisses. There are people making great records in Greece and have no tv exposure. That’s were the talent is. A MAD TV hit does not a Eurovision song make.
Well i personally think that we are gonna see something nice and organized, but the point is if it’s gonna be something spectacular and smart ( song and presentation) or something that we’ve already seen…. i think the presentation is gonna be good concerning the fact Evagelinos will take care of it but i have some concerns about the song (hope it wan’t be like azerbaijan in 2018 or greece in 2017)….. If the song and the stage presentation has a 2020 vibe i think Greece will reach the top 10 considering the fact that they will get points for… Read more »
The last entry from Greece I really liked was in 2013 – funny and ethnic. The performance of Terzi was a disaster.
But did you like Terzi’s song?
I honestly hope the so called dream team redeem themselves after the 2017 fiasco…
They came 3rd in 2019
That was with Sergey + Kirkorov.
They still came 3rd in 2019.
‘Cause of the Russian diaspora, not because of Sergey or his song
They still came 3rd in 2019
I fear the greeks make the same mistakes just like Albania…..
RTSH does the same thing every year and expects a different result. It’s driving us Albanians insane. Greece last year had a great entry, good luck this year!
As a greek, I really don’t know what to think about it. It may be good, but it probably won’t. We’ll see
Sounds weak to me, but we all know you lose your s**t when an untempo act is revealed. This girl looks more prepared for the Junior, even her songs sound more junior than adult. But Greece may probably want to replicate Poland’s success in the Junior bringing a teenager and a pop song already rejected by a superstar or lost in a drawer. Though they are forgetting you can’t vote for yourself in the adult contest nor the Polish songs wouldn’t have been good enough to stand out in the adult.
This choice would be a mess, I think.
I agree that she looks too young, but having said that I believe that if they go all the way with the “teenage” thing it can work. It will look so bad if they try to make her look older than her actual age.
LOL. This is going to be so bad.
Yet Eleni Foureira was never selected. It just puzzles me that there is so much talent in Greek music but ERT doesn’t manage to take advantage of that. Are none of the popular Greek artist interested in ESC or is ERT that inept?
I wouldn’t mind her! She has the voice, stage presence, looks, she may lack experience but that isn’t that important… Would be better if she had a song with Alex P. though… usually not impressed with Dimitris’ songs
Kontopoulos is far more talanted and experienced that Alex P that can only serve one genre
I don´t like Kontopoulos – he only wrote the typical mainstream for ESC.
No he didn’t. He has written from amazing uptempo tracks like Shady Lady (Ukr 2008) and You are the only one (Rus 2016) to emotional ballads like “hold me” (Aze 2013) and cinematic songs like Work your magic (Bel 2007) and Scream (Rus2016). So he can be very good in almost everything.
Average in everything you mean
Kontopoulos is a tired ass composer that is full of himself and has no idea about where pop music is going today. Snap out of it!
I like it – she is really good. Hope that Belarus will send Helena Meraai (JESC 2017) to ESC 2020 then too.
Terzi’s song was great but the staging ruined it.
Duska’s song brought something different for Greece and yet she didn’t manage to grab people’s attention.
There’s something wrong with Greece in the last editions of ESC… And the solution cannot be coming back to the 00s style. They have to explore something different following Bulgaria’s example.
That requires people in charge who love the contest. Sadly, this isn’t the case.
Duska deserved so much more. Results wise I mean, cause her song was great.
Is Kirkorov involved in this? As a team (including Kirkorov) they never missed top 10.
They have 8 out of 8 top 10 placing a in the final
I like the idea, but I think It’s a year or two to early for this girl
I agree, whenever a Junior Eurovision star turns 16, people want them to go to Eurovision, but 16 or 17 is pretty young. They’ll be more ready once they’re 18-20 years old.
Good choice, i hope they will send greek song. The vibe like number one that won.
There´s rumour that ERT want to send a Greek song to Rotterdam. I hope they will confirm it soon.
Greece in recent years;
2015: 19th
2016: NQ
2017: 20th
2018: NQ
2019: 21st
2020: NQ?
It honestly looks likely to happen because I feel like she’s gonna end up having some lame pop song as This Is Love or X My Heart.
IN 2017 Greece was 19th not 20th.
They didn’t even deserve to qualify with that song and the horrendous performance. -_-
The problem in sending someone who is not well known in the country he/she is representing is that people are not that interested in the competition. Same goes for Cyprus with Sandro. Hope she has a good song but this is not very promising.
Duncan wasn’t well known in the netherlands either and he won
That is true Duncan was an unknown but he is native Dutch which meant that the Dutch could get really excited for the win.
That’s the point about Chris’s comment. The home audience has to be excited to.
I’m sure Cyprus will do well with Sandro but currently he is doing the rounds saying how much he loves Cyprus.
Guys I have information for the song! Do not be prejudiced! That is all i am gonna say…!
The only thing I can say is that this year Greece will zip lots of mouths! We will see the Greece strong like the ’00s!
I’m getting more 2017 vibes from this than 00s. And even if it is like in the 00s, we are entering A. WHOLE.NEW.DECADE. we totally should leave the 00s back where they belong.
Saying 00s I do not mean the style of those songs! I mean the places that Greece took! ERT and her team have worked really well! Do not worry she will answer to all of you with her song!
It doesnt matter. Terzi had a great song and she was terrible on stage.
I hope she doesn’t have the ‘Dream Team’ behind her, almost all of their entries are dated pop, Greece 2017 being a prime example of ruining a great artist with a tacky and dated song.
She will have “Dream Team”.
and 2019 was an example of the brilliant way an artist should come back.
Sergey in 2019 wanted to win, not the 3rd place again. If he had placed badly in 2016, then 2019 would be a brilliant way an artist should come back. Helena was brilliant. 3rd in 2001 and then 1st in 2005
With a nice pop song and good fresh staging she can easily bring Greece at top 10
Nah, everything I can see and hear up there feels a bit random and humdrum. Stefania is probably a nice young lady, but so far I can’t see anything interesting (let alone breathtaking) in her œuvre.
Not another “nice pop song” like already other countries do, please. There aren´t real alternate acts than the usual starlets from JESC or diverse casting shows, it´s enough. Greece has a interesting music scene far away from this….. I prefer an entry in greek language this time.
Greece didn’t qualify in 2016 and 2018 with the type of songs you describe.
but 2017 and 2019 was also disappointed…..
2017 was bad… Demy deserved a better selection of songs. Katerine had a good song and the staging was one of the best last year, she deserved better from the public and juries in general.
Katerine’s song was great, but her vocals weren’t. Those vocals really cost her points. She can sing better than that.
Greece with a nice pop song can do really well. I think that most countries will try something unusual so an honest POP song will do really well.
Her song Turn Around is cute but I hope if she goes with something else it isn’t involving the dream team…
Would be a decent choice but ERT could aim higher. Also in 2020 wouldn’t Stefania want to compete for the country that gives her a direct spot in the final? And unlike a usual diaspora pick like Helena or Iveta she’s more famous in her adopted country.
And that is why she goes with Greece! To get votes from the other countries! Besides her roots are Greek! Good luck Stef!
I’m sure she’d like to represent the netherlands but it’s unlikely that avrotros would internally select her.