Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018
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Greece| Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 2018 | ||||
| Participating broadcaster | Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) | |||
| Country | Greece | |||
| Selection process | Internal selection | |||
| Announcement date | 16 February 2018 | |||
| Competing entry | ||||
| Song | "Oniro mou" | |||
| Artist | Yianna Terzi | |||
| Songwriters |
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| Placement | ||||
| Semi-final result | Failed to qualify (14th) | |||
| Participation chronology | ||||
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Greece was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Oniro mou", written by Aris Kalimeris, Dimitris Stamatiou, Yianna Terzi, and Mihalis Papathanasiou, and performed by Terzi herself. The Greek participating broadcaster, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), internally selected its entry for the contest. A national final was scheduled to be held in order to select the entry. Five entries were to compete in the final on 22 February 2018 where public voting would exclusively select the winner, however "Oniro mou" performed by Terzi was announced as the Greek entry on 16 February 2018 following the disqualification of four out of the five national final entries.
To promote the entry, a music video for the song was released and Terzi performed the song at both the fashion music series MADwalk and the Eurovision Live Lounge series hosted by ESCToday. Greece was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 8 May 2018. Performing fourteenth in the running order for the night, "Oniro mou" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Greece placed fourteenth out of the 19 participating countries in its semi-final with 81 points.
Prior to the 2018 contest, Greece had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 38 times since their debut in 1974.[1] To this point, they 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 contest, Greece managed to qualify for the final with each of their entries for several years. Between 2004 and 2013, the nation achieved nine top ten placements in the final. To this point, "Utopian Land" by Argo in 2016 failed to qualify from the semi-finals for the first time ever, being absent from the final for the first time since 2000 and marking Greece's worst result at the contest.[2]
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. ERT's predecessor, the National Radio Television Foundation (EIRT), debuted in the contest in 1974 and then ERT participated from 1975 until 2013, when it was shut down by a government directive and replaced with the interim Dimosia Tileorasi (DT) and later by the New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television (NERIT) broadcaster.[3][4][5][6] During this time, from 2013 through 2015, the Greek television station MAD TV organised the selection process.[7] On 28 April 2015, a legislative proposal that resulted in the renaming of NERIT to ERT was approved and signed into law by the Hellenic Parliament; ERT began broadcasting once again on 11 June 2015,[4][8] and shortly after confirmed their intentions to once again participate in the Eurovision Song Contest.[9]
The Greek broadcaster has used various methods to select its entry in the past, such as internal selections and televised national finals, to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. Despite its desire for a full national final for the previous year's entry, the broadcaster eventually went with an internally selected entrant and a song selected by a national final.[10] For 2018, ERT once again announced a national final to select its entry.[11]
