Introduction

Like every year Greece had a national final to determine the Greek entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The winner of this year’s edition is Maria Elena Kyriakou with a power ballad called “One Last Breath”.
10 years ago, Greece won the contest with “My Number One” sung by Helena Paparizou. Greek entries were very successful recently and made good ranks in the international tableau.
The singer Maria-Elena Kyriakou was born in Larnaca, Cyprus in 1984. It’s not the first time that singers from Cyprus singing for Greece and vice versa. In the age of 13 Maria-Elena’s mother registered her at the conservatorium. Later on she studied Greek literature and philosophy and started working as a professor at the University of Ioannina, North-Western Greece. Maria-Elena won the first edition of The Voice of Greece. Later on she signed a record contract with Universal. She recorded one album called “Dio Ageloi Sti Gi”, which has been climbed up the Greek iTunes charts by a storm.

The song “One Last Breath” is a wonderful ballad which is about love. After years of music experiments, Greece has returned to a somewhat classic ESC music style. The song really supports the beautiful voice of Maria-Elena. In the Greek final she was supported by a pianist at a grand piano. “One Last Breath” has a special hook as it get dramatic at the last third of the song. Greece will definitely get a lot of points, for sure. But maybe the competition is too strong to win a second time.

History

Debut: 1974
Participations: 36
Finals: 35
Top 10: 18
Chance for Top 10: 50%

This year Greece will be participating for the 36th time in the Eurovision Song Contest. The debut Greece made in 1974, which is quite late compared to other Western European countries. The first Greek song “Krassi, Thalassa Ke T'agori Mou” was sung by Marinella and made an 11th place in Brighton.

Since the introduction of televoting, Greece has profited a lot by this new voting procedure. It’s natural as there are many Greeks living all over Europe and of course they vote for Greece if they can. Since the Semi Finals have been established, Greece has always passed them and had a place in the Grand Finals. Furthermore Greece could achieve eight Top10 places within ten years! In the 36 years of participation, Greece could reach a Top10 place 18 times, so statistically there is a 50% chance for Greece achieving a very good place.

The Greeks have always dreamed to win the ESC, the dream came true when the Greek-Swedish superstar Helena Paparizou sang her “Number One” in Kiev, 2005. This outstanding contribution was celebrated like a storm back in Greece. This victory was truly deserved as there were former years with really unfair low placements. The juries have been quite strict with Greek entries in former years. But one jury was very loyal with Greece – it was and still is Cyprus. The famous 12 points have always been exchanged heavily between these countries. That’s why Greece never had zero points at the end. Over the years the Greek entries have become very contemporary and do not hide their traditional folkloristic roots.