Introduction

Against all odds, Greece has been organizing a national final with a lot of Greek former singers and also international ones. The highlight was when Helena Paparizou (winner of 2005) sang together with Vicky Leandros (winner of 1972 for Luxembourg) the winning entry “Après Toi” in a special French-Greek version. Out of four songs the most unusual entry has won the ticket for Malmö.

The song with the funny title “Alcohol Is Free” is being performed by Koza Mostra & Agathonas Iakovidis. The title may cause some trouble as it might conquer the EBU rules with such a message. But Malta once sent a title called “Vodka”. This cannot be seen as invitation to drink it. The combo exists since 2011 and both performers have specialized in specific music styles, Koza is popular for ska music, which comes from Jamaica originally, and Agathonas is experienced in Rembetika – a Greek music style mainly played with a bouzouki, which origins from the early 20th century in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki. 

The song starts like a traditional Greek song with the bouzouki sound. Then the style changes into a fast, rhythmic clap song. The band is used to wear Scottish styled skirts during the performance at the Greek final. As Greece is always qualifying it’s just a question of shaping up in the grand final. This is definitely a good a bit obtrusive party song, maybe not too bad for the big Eurovision party.

History

Participations: 34

Debut: 1974

Biggest success: 1x 1st place 2005 “My Number One” by Helena Paparizou, 3x 3rd place, 2x 5th place, 3x 7th place, 4x 8th place, 3x 9th place, 1x 10th place

For the 34th time Greece is participating in the Eurovision Song Contest. Compared to the other Western European countries Greece had its debut quite late in 1974. The first Greek entry in Brighton was “Krassi, Thalassa Ke T'agori Mou” by Marinella and came 11th.

Greece has won the ESC for the first time in 2005 with “My number one” by Helena Paparizou in 2005. This was a truly well deserved victory after many unfair low placements. Greece is one of the countries which take a great advantage of the televoting, in former years the Greek entries have not been highly awarded with points from the juries. Thanks to televoting Greece always made it into the grand final. The only country to favour Greece with 12 points on a regular basis is Cyprus. Therefore Greece never had zero points in history! Over the years the Greek entries have become very contemporary and do not hide their traditional folkloristic roots.

The most outstanding Greek entries were “I Anixi” by Sofia Vossou in 1991 (13th), “Die for you” by Antique in 2001 (3rd) and “Everything” by Anna Vissi in 2006 (9th).