Greece | ERT plan to Internally Select Eurovision 2019 Act

It was already being speculated due to the rumours of Greece wanting to select the now confirmed Cypriot representative Tamta as their 2019 Eurovision act amongst other rumoured names however broadcaster ERT have now confirmed that they will be internally selecting their 2019 artist.

Preparations are underway for the internal selection, with ERT confirming to fan association OGAE Greece about their plans for selecting their Eurovision Song Contest 2019 representative. ERT have confirmed that a special jury will be created and be in charge of selecting the act who will fly the Greek flag on stage in Tel Aviv.

Famous Greek composer Dimitris Papadimitriou will be heading up the jury as the named president and in this role he will be in charge of artistic diligence for the Greek participation. Eurofans may recognise Dimitris from his work at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest hosted in Athens where he composed the opening act and music for the contest.

Speaking to OGAE Greece, Mrs Maria Koufopoulou - who is the Director of International Relations at Greek broadcaster ERT - said:

"There will not be a competition nor a national final. The broadcaster is going to select the Greek entry internally, using a special-made jury. We are discussing with several artists at the time but no more details can be revealed. We will firstly choose the artist and then we will search for the perfect song, based on the music style of the singer."

In 2018, it was originally intended to be a national final between three artists however following problems with financing entries, only one act was left which meant the ticket to Lisbon for Eurovision 2018 went to Yianna Terzi who performed the haunting 'Oniro Mou' in May. Unfortunately, Yianna was unable to qualify out of semi final one - placing 14th out of the 19 competing countries. This is only the second time in the nations history that they have failed to qualify for the live final so will surely want to be back in the final this year!

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