Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

**Greece** participated in the **Eurovision Song Contest 2020** in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Stefania Liberakakis was internally selected by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) with the song "Supergirl", written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, Sharon Vaughn, Pavlos Manolis, Anastasios Rammos, Diverno and Gabriel Russell.

## Background

*Main article: Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest*Prior to the 2020 contest, Greece had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty times since their debut in 1974. The nation has won the contest once, in 2005 with the song "My Number One" performed by Helena Paparizou. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Greece managed to qualify for the final with each of their entries for several years. Between 2004 and 2011, the nation achieved eight consecutive top ten placements in the final. To this point, Greece in 2016 with Argo's "Utopian Land" failed to qualify from the semi-finals for the first time ever, being absent from the final for the first time since 2000, marking Greece's worst result at the contest. In the 2018 contest, Greece failed to qualify for the second time with Yianna Terzi and the song "Oniro mou" finishing 14th in the semi-final. Greece returned to the final in 2019 with Katerine Duska and the song "Better Love", placing 21st with 74 points.

The Greek national broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), broadcasts the event within Greece and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. ERT had been in charge of Greece's participation in the contest since their debut in 1974 until 2013 when the broadcaster was shut down by a government directive and replaced with the interim Dimosia Tileorasi (DT) and then later by the New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television (NERIT) broadcaster. Following the January 2015 Greek legislative election, a draft proposal was initiated to reinstate ERT as the public Greek broadcaster. On 28 April 2015, the draft was approved and signed into law by the Hellenic Parliament, resulting in the renaming of NERIT to ERT; ERT began broadcasting once again on 11 June 2015. ERT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on 28 August 2015. The Greek broadcaster has used various methods to select the Greek entry in the past, such as internal selections and televised national finals to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. From 2010 through 2017, the Greek entry had been selected via a national final that featured a competition among several artists and songs with the votes of an expert jury and a public televote deciding the Greek Eurovision entry. Starting in 2018 and continuing through the 2020 contest, the Greek entry has been selected internally by the broadcaster without public input.

## Before Eurovision

### Internal selection

Similar to 2019, the Greek broadcaster ERT announced that the entry would be selected internally. On 15 January, the broadcaster revealed the names of the people who would comprise the jury panel involved with the selection of the performing artist. The jury consisted of:

* Dimitris Papadimitriou – Music composer – ERT Board Member (President)
* Petros Adam – Music producer
* Yiorgos Markakis
* Yiannis Petridis – Music producer
* Maria Koufopoulou – ERT Director of International Relations

Prior the official announcement of the performer, numerous artists were rumored as front runners to represent Greece in Rotterdam, between them Irini Papadopoulou, Stefania, Ian Stratis, and the boy band One. The artist and the song title were officially announced through ERT's newscast at 3 February 2020. Stefania and the song "Supergirl" were announced as the Greek entry. The song was written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, the production team ARCADE (Pavlos Manolis, Anastasios Rammos, Diverno, Gabriel Russell), and Sharon Vaughn while the choreography was done by Fokas Evangelinos. The song and official music video were released on 1 March 2020, during the premiere of ERT's new program, *Eurovision Song Contest - Final Countdown*, hosted by Mihalis Marinos.

## At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2020, the allocation draw was held, determining which of the two semi-finals and which half of the show each country would perform in. Greece was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.

### **Split Voting Results**

The following five members comprised the Greek jury:

* Juror 1: Giorgio Rospier
* Juror 2: Fotis Barlakas
* Juror 3: Aggelos Limperis
* Juror 4: Nefeli Gioldasi
* Juror 5: Louka