As the lead up to the Eurovision 2023 national final season continues, one participating country might be making changes to its song selection process. The Greek national broadcaster, ERT, is reportedly considering opening up its internal selection to the public.
Since 2018, Greece’s Eurovision entries have been selected internally by ERT through a committee of jurors. However, according to the To Paron newspaper, and as reported by OGAE Greece, it is rumoured that ERT is considering using a national final and public vote for the 2023 contest.
Of the 106 entries submitted to ERT, 30 entries have now progressed to the next stage, which will then be further narrowed down to a shortlist by ERT’s committee. This shortlist may then be showcased through a national final for a television audience to make the decision of who should represent Greece in Liverpool next year.
It seems ERT is considering this change in order to boost the popularity of Eurovision with its national audience. The head of Radio 2 for ERT, Maria Kozakou, said in a recent TV interview that “Little by little it [public voting] has to enter the process … the five or the ten best songs should be evaluated by people.”
As exciting as this change would be, a new selection process would not come without its challenges. As To Paron also reports, if ERT chooses to host a national final to boost commercial interest, it would also need to secure additional funding to organise a televised show and accompanying televote process. Because of these higher costs, prospects of seeing a Greek national final remain uncertain.
In a report on TV show Super Katerina, journalist Yannis Poulopoulos noted that, whilst a full televised national final may not happen, there are proposals within ERT for a more open selection. This could involve an online vote or by bringing Eurovision experts and fans into the selection process.
Until ERT confirms one way or another how it will proceed, Greek fans will just have to wait and see whether they will be able to play a part in sending their favourite entry to Liverpool.
Would you like Greece to hold a national final and public vote for Eurovision 2023? Who would you want to see participate? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
ERT should organise a two-hour programme with ten songs and have a decision by televote and jury which is what always happened until 2015. I can’t believe they are seriously considering a czech-style “online vote” or a vote by fan club types and Eurovision insiders, when we all remember how the favourites before the live performances were always totally different from the eventual winner (for example in 2013 the fans preferred Alex Leon’s song to the eventual winner Koza Mostra who gave Greece their best placing of the last decade). Give fledging artists from the local music scene some national… Read more »
Yes, it’s democratic to let people vote but history shows that the criteria people use are different. A popular artist will get votes even if the song is not that good. Greece does not have the Melodifestivalen mentality yet. I am very happy with ERT choices over the past few years. I am not sure if a national fi al the Greek way would benefit the result a lot. Perhaps an online voting to get from 10 to 5 songs would suffice. Also, international voting allowed.
On the other hand, I am not happy at all with greek choices of the past 4 years which seemed to me sterile and totally calculated anglo-pop without a trace of any greek musical element whatsoever. And since I am paying the ERT fee I think I should have some say in the matter.
I’m also a Greek citizen and I was happy with the anglo pop songs we had. I pay my fees to ERT too and I think a committee of experts should decide and not the tasteless public of this country.
I applaud Greece for taking the risk, hope it pays off 🙂
I prefer salty peanuts, I hate raisins.
i’m always for a country’s people choosing their own representative, so i think this is the best way to go if ert feels they got multiple worthy submissions!
But will it be scandal-free? They were supposed to hold one in 2018 until “Oniro Mou” was selected by default because of last-minute eligibility issues with the other entries.
Yeah, I remember. The record companies of the other two entries wouldn’t pay the entry fees requested by the broadcaster if I remember correctly.
As a Greek fan, let me say this: this is going to be really good or really bad. The last two years I’ve been very pleased with the choices of ERT, and although it is democratic to let the public (in general,not just the fans) decide the entry, I just don’t trust my people’s taste at all :p
Time will tell 🙂
I’m open to an online vote, especially if international fans can vote as well.
it’s greece’s representative, just let greek people decide lmao.
A lot of countries will change their plans at the last minute, as a result of the sudden changes in the voting.
The fair would be for the changes to be applied from 2024 and onwards.
Will they, unless they knew before the announcement? I understand the concern about a decrease in music for televote appeal, but we might be underestimating a lot of countries.
Well, internal selection has worked pretty well for Greece in the last few years. If it ain’t broken…
Yeah, other than 2018, Greece has managed to hit the final for last few years and they’ve gotten two top 10 positions twice in a row. So far so good, but would have a national final be a step backwards for Greece? I think about Belgium’s first attempt at a national final in years and while I’ll reserve judgment if it’s actually good or not when songs are out, I’m not gonna lie I’m a little worried because they’re out of practice. If Belgium has stuff in its selection that is usually Jury appeal, Then they’re going to have a… Read more »
There’s jury appeal, and then there’s exclusively jury appeal. Think Die Together, Je me casse, Sound of Silence, or Friend of a Friend. While all of them scored much better with the juries, they all had more than enough of televote to qualify to the finals. When in the finals, they can still count on the juries to carry them higher than they’d do with televoters alone. They can still do very well. On the other hand, there are entries like Fade to Black or Boys Do Cry, who would’ve been well below the qualification line if it ain’t for… Read more »
Which is sad. I don’t know how anyone can justify the likes of Fade To Black getting 0 points and The Wrong Place 3.
It is broken. It would be much, much better for ERT to give three hours primetime spotlight to upcoming talents, songwriters and performers. A chance to learn, get better, meet new collaborators, gain traction. Actual public service broadcasting, instead of just settling for eighth place and thinking it’s worth the sacrifice. Results are not everything.
Have international juries in the pockets? Have you ever saw the breakdown of the results or you are simply pathetic?
Who claims that Greece payed juries and with what evidence? Don’t you have anything better to do than spreading offensive things that can get you in trouble????
Do better. Una. Stop being a pathetic troll. Una.
I saw this news about Greece considering a national final Another Eurovision news site before the news about the new voting changes, So it makes me wonder if the broadcasters knew this was coming or if they were blindsided.
They would have known. We’ve hardly seen a backlash from them, have we?
Letting the public decide is always a great idea lest the public broadcaster being liable if the act ends up flopping in the contest.