Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greece has been participating in Eurovision since 1974, with the exception of 1975, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1999 and 2000. After 26 years in the competition, Greece won for the first time in 2005 with Elena Paparizou singing "My Number One", which broke the record for the most number of twelve points allocated to a song (ten in total). After Eurovision, the song topped the charts in Greece, Cyprus and Sweden, and entered the top ten in Romania, The Netherlands, Hungary, Belgium and, even, the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart. In 2005, Eurovision held a commemorative programme, Congratulations, to celebrate 50 years of the contest, in which "My Number One" came fourth in a vote for the show's most popular entry, behind "Hold Me Now" (1987), "Nel blu dipinto di blu" (1958) and ABBA's "Waterloo" (1974).

Before Greece's win, the highest score was third place, achieved by duo Antique (of which Elena Paparizou was a member) in 2001 with "Die for You" and then again by Sakis Rouvas in 2004 with "Shake It". Greece's least successful result was at 20th place in 1998 with the song "Mia Krifi Evesthisia" (English, "A Hidden Sensibility") by Thalassa, which received 12 points in total, all from Greek-speaking Cyprus.

In 2006, the 51st Eurovision Song Contest was held in Athens, Greece, following Elena Paparizou's victory the previous year. The two hosts were popular singer, and former contestant, Sakis Rouvas and Greek-American actress Maria Menounos. The singer representing Greece in their own country was popular Greek Cypriot artist Anna Vissi.

[edit] Voting

Greece is famous for, especially in recent years, always giving twelve points to Cyprus and always receiving twelve points from Cyprus. This is one of many examples of the block voting seen in contest which also occurs between Balkan, Scandinavian and Baltic countries. In the case of Greece and Cyprus, the exchange of twelve points is probably due to the fact that the majority of Cypriot citizens are Greeks thus sharing linguistic ties (speaking Greek) and musical taste. Due to the controversies caused by political voting, two semi-finals were introduced for the 2008 Contest in which Cyprus and Greece were unable to vote for each other in the semi-finals.^[2] In the build-up to the 2008 contest, however, the artists representing Greece and Cyprus jointly held a successful warm-up party at the Euroclub, attended by 17 other delegations from the contest and 1500 guests attracted by the promised "confluence of the Greek-Cypriot sound".^[3]

Sarbel at Helsinki (2007)

Kalomira at Belgrade (2008)

Ruslana and Elena Paparizou

Despite an ongoing political debate with regards to Cyprus, and tension over several island territories claimed by both countries, Greece enjoys a friendly relationship with Turkey in the contest. For instance, in 2005, Turkey awarded Greece twelve points for their (winning) entry by Elena Paparizou. However, in 2004, when the Contest was held in Turkey, controversy arose when the hosts purposely delayed announcing that Greece and Cyprus had won a place in the final. Some argue that it was a joke, whilst others saw it as disrespectful. Cyprus and Greece were announced last by the host, who had earlier been seen reshuffling the envelopes, and placing two at the back of the pile.

Greece has been the most successful country of the Eurovision Song Contest after the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004. They have reached a top-ten position every year since then:^[4] third in 2004, first in 2005, ninth in 2006, seventh in 2007 and third in 2008.

[edit] Greek Entries

The songs that represented Greece in the Eurovision song Contest are as follows:

[edit] Hostings

[edit] References