Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010


Greece, in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, selected the song "Opa" sung by Giorgos Alkaios & Friends as their entry, by a national selection on 12 March 2010.

Background

Prior to the 2010 Contest, Greece had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty times since its first entry in 1974, winning it in 2005 with the song "My Number One" performed by Elena Paparizou, and having placed third three times: in 2001 with the song "Die for You" performed by the duo Antique; in 2004 with "Shake It" performed by Sakis Rouvas; and the 2008 entry "Secret Combination" performed by Kalomoira. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Greece has had a top ten placing each year. The least successful result was in 1998 when with the song "Mia Krifi Evesthisia" by Thalassa placing twentieth, receiving only twelve points in total, all from Cyprus.
The Greek national broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, is in charge of Greece's participation each year, including the selection process for its entry. Although its selection techniques have varied over the decades, the most common has been a national final in which various acts compete against each other with pre-selected songs, voted on by a jury, televoters, or both. In most cases, internal selections have been reserved for high-profile acts, with the song either being selected internally or with multiple songs —by one or multiple composers— performed by the artist during a televised final. A departure from this method was a reality television talent competition format inspired by the Idol series that ran for many months in 2004, ultimately being scrapped. The notability of the participants has also varied, from previously unsigned acts to established music superstars. Since the 2010s ERT has used national finals with generally less-established acts.

Before Eurovision

Ellinikós Telikós 2010

On 12 January 2010, it was decided that the national final would be pushed back from 10 February 2010 to March 2010. By late January, ERT once again chose to move the date of the final, this time to Friday 12 March 2010 because they felt that Fridays were good days for television ratings. The participating songs were scheduled to be revealed the week before the final on 5 March 2010 during a two-hour televised program as opposed to the press conference used in previous years. The artistic direction of the national final was headed by Fokas Evangelino and the final took place in a large television studio instead of the nightclubs of past finals.

Competing entries

After an open call to record labels to submit proposals, ERT officially announced on 18 December 2009 the ten participants for the Greek national final. The majority of the announced performers are newcomers in the Greek music scene, while the music styles and genres of the announced performers varies compared to previous years.
On 12 January 2010, Despina Ricci announced her withdrawal from the national final citing a busy schedule. Her spot was not filled leaving nine participants for the final. A month later on 8 February 2010 after the song titles were revealed, it was found that a remix of Katerine Avgoustakis' song "Enjoy the Day" had been available for viewing on the video hosting website YouTube since 5 November 2009. As it was a violation of ERT's national final rules to have any part of a candidate's song made available to the public before the presentation of songs on 5 March 2010, Avgoustakis and her song were disqualified, leaving eight participants in the final. Later on 25 February 2010, Eleftheria Eleftheriou was disqualified as well, after her song "Tables Are Turning" was leaked onto the internet, bringing the total number of participants down to seven.
The songs of the national final were originally scheduled to be revealed during a presentation show on 5 March 2010, however, ERT in fear of having to disqualify more leaked songs, decided to post the seven songs on their website on 26 February 2010. The presentation show was still broadcast the following week on NET and ERT World, hosted by Dimitra Agkriotou and Despina Fagkra. The public was able to view each competing entry in the form of a video.

Final

The final took place on 12 March 2010 and was hosted by Rika Vaggiani and Jenny Balatsinou. The winner was determined by a combination of the votes from a five-member jury and televoting. The five members of the jury were Mimis Plessas, Anthony Andrikakis, Andreas Pylarinos, Christiana Stamatelou and Poseidon Yannopoulos. Only the winner was announced, being "OPA" performed by Giorgos Alkaios & Friends.
Interval acts included Cypriot entrant Jon Lilygreen & The Islanders performing their song "Life Looks Better in Spring", Bulgarian entrant Miroslav Kostadinov performing his song "Angel si ti" and the previously disqualified participant Katerine Avgoustakis, performing a piano ballad version of her song "Treat Me Like Lady" as well as her former entry "Enjoy the Day".
On 15 March 2010, ERT revealed the jury and televoting results of the top three songs. Songs were awarded points as they would in the Eurovision Song Contest. As the top three songs were all tied in points, the public vote prevailed with Giorgos Alkaios & Friends winning.

Promotion

Due to financial constraints facing ERT, the winning entry had a limited budget compared to past years, with ERT only paying for the music video and a very limited promotional tour.

At Eurovision

Greece competed in the second half of the first semi-final of the contest on 25 May. It qualified for the final, and came 8th with 140 points.

Split Results

Semi-final 1

Final

12 points10 points8 points7 points6 points

  • 5 points4 points3 points2 points1 point
  • 12 points10 points8 points7 points6 points

  • 5 points4 points3 points2 points1 point