Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023

Prior to the 2023 contest, Greece had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 42 times since its 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. The first entry to not qualify for the final was "Utopian Land" by Argo in 2016. Its 16th place finish marked Greece's worst placing at the contest and led to its absence from the final for the first time since 2000, when they did not send an entry. In 2018, Greece failed to qualify for the second time with "Oniro mou" by Yianna Terzi finishing 14th in the semi-final. For the three contests prior to 2023, the nation once again returned to qualifying for the final, including in 2022, when "Die Together" by Amanda Tenfjord went on to place eighth with 215 points.^[1]

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.^[2] ERT's predecessor, the National Radio Television Foundation (EIRT), debuted in the contest in 1974 and then ERT participated from 1975 until 2013, when the broadcaster was shut down by a government directive and replaced firstly with the interim Dimosia Tileorasi (DT) and then later by the New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television (NERIT) broadcaster.^[2][3][4][5] Following the victory of the Syriza party at the January 2015 Greek legislative election, the Hellenic Parliament renamed NERIT to ERT that June.^[6][7] ERT confirmed its intentions to participate in the 2023 contest on 26 August 2022 when the announced details of their upcoming selection process for its entry.^[8][9]

On 26 August 2022, ERT opened a submission period where artists and composers were able to submit their proposals for consideration by the broadcaster until 9 October 2022. Artists were required to be signed to record labels and their proposal had to contain up to three songs, indicate the accompanying artistic group, and include ideas or concepts for the song's promotion and presentation.^[8][9] There were 106 songs received by the submission deadline.^[10] Seven entries were then shortlisted by a 70-member committee and were announced on 28 December 2022.

The seven acts were then evaluated by public and artistic committees. The public committee consisted of a total of 70 members randomly selected from 2,982 applications based on five age groups: 25 members in the 18 to 24 category, 20 members in the 25 to 34 category, 15 members in the 35 to 44 category and 10 members in the over 45 category.^[11] The artistic committee consisted of Petros Adam (music producer), Leonidas Antonopoulos (journalist and music producer), Fotis Apergis (ERT radio director), Konstantinos Bourounis (head of ERT's youth program), Maria Kozakou (director of the Second Programme of Hellenic Radio), Dimitris Papadimitriou (music composer) and Yannis Petridis (music producer).^[12] On 19 January 2023, ERT shortlisted three final songs from the seven, which was the outcome of the public committee vote, followed by a respective evaluation by the artistic committee. The final three were announced through ERT1 show, Proian se eidon tin mesimvrian (Greek: Πρωίαν σε είδον την μεσημβρίαν; I saw you in the morning, at noon).^[12][13]

The combination of votes from the public committee (50.6%) and the artistic committee (49.4%) then selected the Greek entry.^[14][15] This marked the first time that ERT had opted for a format where the entry was selected by two panels.^[16] Greek-Danish singer Victor Vernicos was announced as the Greek representative for the 2023 contest through ERT1's newscast on 30 January 2023.^[17] At 16 years-old, he became the youngest entrant to be selected to represent the nation.^[18][19] Vernicos' entry, "What They Say", was released on 12 March 2023 through Panik Records alongside its music video.^[20]

Following the announcement of Vernicos as the Greek entrant, Mantzoukis publicly protested the results of the process, threatening legal action.^[23][24][25] Mantzoukis and her legal team cited two concerns in their challenge of the results. Prior to the artistic committee's vote, it was reported that Kaouri and Maragkou had withdrawn themselves from consideration, leaving only two entrants as options. Despite this, all three acts were awarded points by the committee. Secondly, they alleged that even if all three acts were considered, the point values awarded do not sum to the quantity of points available, and if they had, Mantzoukis would have won.^[23][25] Artistic committee member Kozakou then explained in an interview on ERT's Proian se eidon tin mesimvrian that point values were not awarded based on awards of first, second and third place by the committee (12, 10 or 8 points, respectively, in Eurovision fashion), but from 12 through 4 points (first through seventh) to align the total point values with the quantity awarded by the public committee.^[26] Mantzoukis' lawyer Christos Zotiadis responded during an interview on Star Channel's show Breakfast @ Star that they were unsatisfied with ERT's response, and requested that the detailed committee votes for each member at each voting stage be released for transparency.^[26][27]

A temporary injunction halting the Greek participation was denied by Greek courts on 6 March, citing the short time period between then and the EBU's 13 March deadline for entry submissions.^[28] Mantzoukis' lawsuit to be declared the winner and awarded damages was anticipated to be heard in mid-May following the contest.^[28] Arguments in the lawsuit ended on 4 July, with the judge expected to make a decision within six to seven months of that date.^[29] Mantzoukis' song, "Liar", ended up representing Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, sung by Silia Kapsis.^[30]

To promote the entry, a music video of the song, directed by Yiannis Georgioudakis, was filmed.^[31] The video was produced by PickCodes, with Kostas Kalimeris, Steve Sovolos, and Vangelis Gialamas taking part in its production.^[32] It was scheduled to be released on 6 March alongside the song itself, but was delayed due to the Tempi train crash.^[31] The song and video were eventually released on 12 March during the show Dio sti 1 (Greek: Δύο στη 1; Two in 1) and were available later that day through ERT's over-the-top media service ERTFlix and on the ERT's YouTube channel.^[33] To further promote the entry, Vernicos took part in a meet-and-greet event on 6 April organised by ERT. The event was attended by the Greek Eurovision delegation, local British embassy representatives, as well as mainstream print, television and radio media. He sang his entry "What They Say" live with a guitar and covered a number of past Eurovision entries.^[34] Further promotion involved an acoustic version of the song being released on the official Eurovision YouTube channel as part of its A Little Bit More series.^[35] Vernicos was largely absent from the Eurovision touring circuit and did not attend pre-parties,^[36] although he made several appearances and performed at The Cavern Club and the EuroClub in Camp and Furnace upon his arrival in Liverpool.^[37]