At the end of August, Greek broadcaster ERT opened submissions for its Eurovision 2023 selection. As with recent years, Greece will once again have an internal selection process. And now reports are filtering through that Leon of Athens could likely be one of the acts submitting a song to the selection.
In order to find the perfect representative for Eurovision 2023, ERT invited record labels to submit songs on behalf of their artists.
OGAE Greece reports Leon of Athens intends to submit a song and he is already working on it together with his team from Cobalt Music record company. They mention that the Greek-American singer will submit his song in the coming days and it can be described as a “very strong” entry.
Leon of Athens is not a stranger to the world of Eurovision. He was one of the composers of Greece’s entry from 2019, “Better Love”, sang by Katerine Duska. He has also released a couple of other original songs with Katerine, “Communication” and “ANEMOΣ”.
Other notable collaborations include the remix of “Communication” by American rock band ‘Portugal. The Man’. Additionally, Leon of Athens brought onboard Oscar-nominated Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos to create a short film for the music video of “Baby Asteroid”.
According to his Spotify bio, his alt-pop sound can be compared with that of Lauv or MARINA, both of whom Leon of Athens has supported live.
These live performances have taken him to festivals in a number of countries, including Primavera Sound in Spain and a multitude in the Unites States: Bonnaroo, Firefly, Summerfest, Shaky Knees, Okeechobee.
Eurovision fans have consistently had Leon of Athens on their wish lists and included him in fan-run online contests. But they’ll have to wait and see if these wishes become a reality and whether his proposed Eurovision 2023 entry is eventually chosen by ERT.
Whoever represents Greece next year will have big shoes to fill after Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord took her entry “Die Together” to the top ten in the grand final of the 2022 contest, finishing eighth overall.
What are your thoughts on Leon of Athens potentially representing Greece at Eurovision 2023? What type of song would you want him to perform? Tell us below in the comments.
Those credentials sound good to me :3
OK I understand the dream team are being involved with his entry. So he will 90% represent Greece.
Most of the hopefuls will ask to be involved with the team, because they know they have no chance of ERT picking them otherwise. In the end it will be the team choosing whomever they think has the best chance among many hopefuls and I can’t see him being a frontrunner.
I actually like his collaboration with Katerina Duska. Though I don’t know if that would resonte with the audience.
He is Katerine Duska’s boyfriend
a similar song like “Anemos” for ESC could be a very good choice for Greece.
His music compositions are weak and unable to grab my attention. When reports say it’s a ‘very strong’ entry, I usually expect a ‘very weak’ entry.
seems like they’re trying to fabricate hype around this no name. hope it ends up being someone greeks can be proud of and willingly root for without having to resort to google searches.
Leon of Athens a no name? Just because you don’t know him? A lot of Greeks I know love him, myself included. I’d certainly be proud if he represented us but you know what I’d rather not see him in Eurovision because his talent will be wasted to tasteless people like you.
so well known that he can’t crack a million views on youtube or enter the greek charts or get an english wikipedia page (and they literally include anyone) lmao
So talent is measured by “millions views on youtube” nowadays? Many Greek artists have a respectable following without getting millions of views. One of my favourite bands, Matisse, never had more than a couple thousands views on youtube, however they were successful in certain circles and had a respectable following. Also Onar, arguably a very successful band, hadn’t reached a million views a lot of times. Thankfully, ERT doesn’t evaluate artists by popularity but by talent and quality of songs, otherwise we’d have talentless Josephine in Eurovision by now. Personally, I’d pick “no names” but genuine artistis like Katerina Bournaka,… Read more »
if ert really takes talent into consideration then how did stefania liberakakis (no shade) get to eurovision? no idea what their criteria are but talent or artistic integrity aren’t fundamental clearly. also – and i know greeks haven’t had that thrill in a while – it’s just nicer to have the country hyped up for someone people care about. here you never have people googling who our representative is, because we send people the public knows (and picked). talent exists among big names as well, try sending one with a good song and you’ll get my point 😀 if you… Read more »
You really think Stefania isn’t talented? Perhaps her music isn’t really everyone’s cup of tea, it’s not mine anyway, but no one can claim that this girl isn’t talented. She has a beautiful voice and a bright future ahead of her. Criterias are of course artistic integrity (even if you don’t want to admit it) and the potential of a good placing in the final. Last two years we had two talented ladies that ended in top 10 so I don’t see something wrong here. So you send people the public knows, good for you. That’s what your country want… Read more »
Damn someone is bitter that Greece has 2 consecutive top 10 results
my country has just had 5 of them so nah
5 top 10s and a stage that didnt work. well…
and it took us a VICTORY to find that out! and greece? 00s fad!
Greece in 2006 had a more technically complicated stage than Italy in 2021. And guess what. It worked.
At this point, it’s a bit overdone w/ the diaspora, and I saw this as a diaspora Greek myself. I’d like to see a male from Greece. Good Job Nicky could produce a decent result.
Leon is not diaspora. He was born and raised in Greece. He temporarily moved to London in his 20s, but now mostly lives in Greece.
Leon of Athens already sent a song to represent Greece for Eurovision not long ago.
https://youtu.be/c4SRJlDIZ9U
Why does Greece only send diaspora people? It’s cringe at this point. Give people of Greece a chance too.
They have an open submission system. As long g as they send a good enough song a native person will be selected.
And otherwise there is always greece #2 aka Cyprus 🙂
Their submission system is not actually open, it’s open for record labels only. The majority of Greek artists are independent artists. The Greek broadcaster ERT has banned all independent artists from taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest. That’s how ‘open’ their submission system is.
The rules are very clear. The Greek broadcaster ERT has banned all indie artists from taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest. Only record labels are allowed to submit songs. That’s the sad truth. Some indie artists want to submit their songs, but they aren’t allowed to do so.
Leon is not diaspora.
We know how it goes. If reports say it’s “very strong”, it’s not gonna be very strong.
where are all the “morally superior” esc countries announcing their boycott if azerbaijan participates? i thought esc doesnt support DICKtatorships or does this only apply to 2 particular dictators but all the others get to stay or were they shipped barrels of oil to stay silent like germany ???
Did EBU ever punish those six corrupt broadcasters after Eurovision? They did punish Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2009, Romania in 2016, Armenia in 2016, Iceland in 2019 before, didn’t they?
There is a point here. We have had articles about the war in ukraine on here, calls fro russian bann etc. Armenia is MASSIVELY invaded by Azerbaijan so why not the same treatment by the community ?
Anyways maybe the fandom will start caring when next month the cancellation of jesc 2022 is announced because Yerevan 2022 is 100% impossible with the current war state
Armenia has been able to host football matches today in spite of the flare ups that occurred earlier this week, and Israel hosted 2019 comfortably despite plenty of flare ups between them and Gaza between ESC 2018 and ESC 2019, including one when postcards were being filmed despite an isolated fire going beyond Tel Aviv, and on the weekend of the first rehearsals, where there were victims in Ashdod, just 35 km from the venue. It would need to be severe and prolonged for the event not to be fine.
Yeah I feel like they’d have said something by now
sooo when will the esc community actually stand up to their self proclaimed morals of not letting countries participate that are lead by dictators and attack a countries sovereign territory. where are the morals regarding Azerbaijans attacks against armenia THE ACTUAL country lead by that DICKtator IlHaram Aliyew
What are your thoughts on Leon of Athens, Kelly? I don’t disagree, but that’s not what this article is about.
Stop banging on about Armenia in every one of the unrelated articles.
get ready for dislikes sadly