Greece 2023: ERT reveals more information about participation, results and budget

By Alexandros Vovidis

After selecting the top three, the ERT jury met with the teams of the top three performers to discuss ideas for the song’s promotion, video clip, and performance. The jury then provided its final decision on the three songs.

Before that though, on a Greek TV Morning program called “Super Katerina” the lawyer of Melissa Mantzouki called out ERT for being unfair regarding the results.

The results are as follows:

Audience Jury:

Melissa Mantzoukis– Liar 693 votes
Victor Vernicos– What they say 509 votes
Maria Maragkou and Antonia Kaouri– Shout out 341 votes

The jury of professionals:

Victor Vernicos– What they say 740 votes
Maria Maragkou and Antonia Kaouri– Shout out 720 votes
Melissa Mantzoukis– Liar 440 votes

Audience + Jury results together:

Victor Vernicos– What they say 1.249 votes
Melissa Mantzoukis– Liar 1.133 votes
Maria Maragkou and Antonia Kaouri– Shout out 1.061 votes

On a different note as per the information published on Diaugia, ERT’s fee for participating in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest is now set at 150,142 Euros, which represents an increase of roughly 20,000 euros compared to the previous year.

The increase in Greece’s participation fee for Eurovision 2023 is due to both the reduced number of participating countries and Russia’s withdrawal from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

Each country’s fee for participating in the Eurovision contest is determined by a variety of factors, including population size. The “Big 5” (United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, Germany) who automatically qualify for the final pay the highest fee and therefore have the privilege of directly going to the Grand Final.

Another big change happening this year is about the team surrounding the representative. Fokas Evangelinos who has previously teamed with ERT for years is not going to be the one staging the greek entry. He was the director of numerous notable Eurovision entries and victors, including Greece in 2005, Russia in 2008 & 2016, Azerbaijan in 2013, and others. Who will direct the stage for Greece’s entry in Eurovision 2023 is not yet known.