Eurosong 2015 - A MAD Show

Greece was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "One Last Breath", written by Efthivoulos Theocharous, Maria Elena Kyriakou, Vaggelis Konstantinidis and Evelina Tziora and performed by Kyriakou. The song was selected through the five-participant national final, ''Eurosong 2015 – NERIT & MAD show'', developed by NERIT and organised and produced by the private music channel MAD TV.

Greece was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 19 May 2015. Performing during the show in position 6, "One Last Breath" was among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Greece placed sixth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 81 points. At the final, held four days later, Greece performed 15th out of the 27 finalists and finished in 19th place with 23 points.

Background

Prior to the 2015 contest, Greece had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 35 times since its first entry in 1974. Before 2015, the nation had won the contest once, in 2005 with the song "My Number One" performed by Helena Paparizou, and placed third three times: in 2001 with the song " Die for You" performed by the duo Antique; in 2004 with " Shake It" performed by Sakis Rouvas; and in 2008 with " Secret Combination" performed by Kalomoira. Greece had managed to qualify for the final every year since the introduction of semi-finals in , and between 2004 and 2013, the nation achieved nine top ten placements. Greece's least successful result was in when it placed 20th with the song "Mia krifi evaisthisia" by Thalassa, receiving only 12 points in total, all from Cyprus.

Historically, the Greek national broadcaster and European Broadcasting Union (EBU) member, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), broadcast the event within Greece and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. However, in August 2013, the Greek government shut down the radio and television services of ERT, leaving Greece's future contest participation in question. The EBU allowed the nation to participate in the 2014 contest using the temporary channel Dimosia Tileorasi (DT), which applied for participation on and took on the task of organising the selection process for the nation's representative. DT then partnered with the private music channel MAD TV to select the entry. On 4 May 2014, two days before to the 2014 contest's first semi-final, the new Greek public broadcaster, New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television (NERIT), was launched allowing the participation for the year to formally proceed. Though not yet an Active Member of the EBU at the time, the nation was allowed to take part in the contest based on an exception granted by the EBU.

On 24 July 2014, Greece confirmed its intent to compete in the 2015 contest, however, its participation was reliant upon NERIT becoming an Active Member in the union. Their application was reviewed at the EBU General Assembly and on 5 December 2014, NERIT was granted EBU membership, allowing the participation to proceed.

Before Eurovision

''Eurosong 2015 – NERIT & MAD show (60 years of music)''

NERIT confirmed on 14 January 2015 that it would partner with private music channel MAD TV to organize and produce Greece's selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, marking the third consecutive year of their partnership. The national final event, titled ''Eurosong 2015 – NERIT & MAD show (60 years of music)'', took place on 4 March 2015 at the Enastron Music Hall in Tavros, Athens, and was hosted by Mary Sinatsaki and Doretta Papadimitriou. The show was televised on NERIT in Greece and on RIK 2 and RIK Sat in Cyprus. It was also available online through NERIT's website ''nerit.gr'' and the official Eurovision Song Contest website ''eurovision.tv''.

Competing entries

NERIT put out a call for interest to major record labels to find participants for the show, resulting in five candidate acts. The five acts (Barrice, C:Real, Maria Elena Kyriakou, Shaya Hansen, and Thomai Apergi & Legend) were announced on 17 February 2015. Snippets of the songs aired during the morning radio show of NERIT's Second Programme on 18 February, during a broadcast hosted by Maria Kozakou, who had served as Greece's contest commentator for the prior three editions of the contest. A presentation show, where the audience was able to hear each song in full, then aired on 26 February.

Prior to the announcement of the final participants list, 2007 Greek national final participant Tamta and Dionysis Schoinas were publicized by the media as being included (in place of eventual participants Kyriakou and Barrice, respectively). Tamta subsequently released her selected song "Unloved" in late May following the conclusion of the contest. The selection process was objected to publicly by record label Polymusic, which claimed that NERIT did not solicit proposals from all labels and instead "played favourites"; they then threatened to sue the broadcaster to force their inclusion. They revealed that they had intended to propose Alexandra Koniak, formerly of the group Stavento, as their candidate.

Final

The final took place on 4 March 2015. Five songs competed and the winner, "One Last Breath" performed by the Cypriot singer Maria Elena Kyriakou, was selected by a 50-50 combination of public and jury voting. Kyriakou was previously known for being the winner of the first season of ''The Voice of Greece''. Her song was written by Kyriakou, Efthivoulos Theocharous, Vaggelis Konstantinidis, and Evelina Tziora.

Public voting during the show was conducted through telephone or SMS, with 33,672 votes being cast. The seven-member jury panel consisted of Nikos Ksanthoulis (composer and director of music for NERIT), Michalis Oikonomou (composer), Giorgos Niarchos (composer), Jick Nakassian, Litsa Piskera (former public relations for ERT), Reggina Kouri (public relations for MAD TV), and Marianna Efstratiou (Greek Eurovision representative in and ).

In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured guest performances by Eurovision Song Contest 2005 winner Helena Paparizou, 2002 Cypriot Eurovision entrants One, 2011 Greek Eurovision entrant Loukas Yorkas, 2014 Greek Eurovision entrants Freaky Fortune and Riskykidd, 1987 Greek Eurovision entrant Thanos Kalliris performing with the group Kings, the group Boys and Noise, and 2015 Cypriot Eurovision entrant Giannis Karagiannis. The show celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest as well as the 10 year anniversary of Greece's 2005 win.

Promotion

The Eurovision version of the song was released on 20 March 2015, and a Greek version of the song titled "Mia anapnoi" was released in mid-April. To promote the song, Kyriakou appeared on 20 April at the ''Eurovision in Concert'' series, an event held at the club Melkweg in Amsterdam, Netherlands that was staged to serve as a preview party for the year's entries. The following weekend, she attended the London Eurovision Party on 27 April where she sang her entry "One Last Breath". Further promotional activities included Kyriakou performing live at the MAD TV annual fashion music series ''MADwalk'' on 29 April.

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 took place at Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria. It consisted of two semi-finals held on 19 and 21 May, respectively, and the final on 23 May 2015. Within Greece, the shows aired on televisions stations NERIT and NERIT HD, with a radio broadcast on Second Programme. Maria Kozakou and Giorgos Kapoutzidis provided commentary for the broadcasts, continuing a role they had performed together for the prior three contests.

All nations, with the exceptions of the host country and the " Big Five", consisting of , , , and the , were required to qualify from one of the two semi-finals to compete for the final; the top 10 countries from each semi-final progressed to the final. For this contest, Australia was also automatically included in the final as an invited guest nation.

To determine when the semi-finalists would perform, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into five different pots based on voting patterns from the prior 10 years. On 26 January 2015, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals and determined which half of the show they would perform in. At this event, Greece was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 19 May 2015, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. Once all the competing songs for the 2015 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Greece was set to perform sixth out of 16 in its semi-final, following the entry from and preceding the entry from .

Performances

Kyriakou took part in technical rehearsals on 11 and 15 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 18 and 19 May 2015. This included the jury final where professional juries of each country, responsible for 50 percent of each country's vote, watched and voted on the competing entries. The Greek performance was choreographed by Maria Lyraraki with styling by Kostas Zisis. It saw Kyriakou wearing in a silver and black dress designed by Dimitris Petrou, and set to a background of a circle of blue LED lights. Accompanying Kyriakou on stage was the composer of the song Theocharous, who played piano, as well as Alexandros Oikonomou and Katerina Kyriakou, who provided backing vocals.

Following the first semi-final, Greece's advancement to the final was announced, with the country having secured a place in the top ten entries from its semi-final. Immediately after the first semi-final, a winner's press conference convened for the ten countries that qualified, allowing their artists to participate in a draw determining their performance segment in the final. Greece was designated to compete in the second half. Following this draw, the show's producers arranged the running order for the final, positioning Greece to perform in position 15, succeeding and preceding . After Greece's performance in the final, held four days later, the nation placed 19th with 23 points. The next day, Kyriakou was interviewed by the morning show where spoke about her experience and identified her concerns with how the votes went. She specifically called out the fact that countries that finished below Greece in the semi-final ended up ahead of it in the final.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarded 1–8, 10, and 12 points as determined by a combination of 50% national jury and 50% televoting. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on vocal capacity, the stage performance, the song's composition and originality and the overall impression by the act. The individual rankings of each jury member were released shortly after the final.

In the first semi-final, Greece placed sixth with 81 points, which included the top 12 points from Albania. In the final, Greece placed 19th with 23 points, with its highest point award being 10 from Albania. The nation awarded its 12 points to Russia in the first semi-final and Italy in the final. Greece's 2005 contest entrant Helena Paparizou was the Greek spokesperson who announced the country's voting results during the shows. The tables below show a complete breakdown of points awarded to Greece in both the first semi-final and the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, as well as by the country on both occasions.

Points awarded to Greece

Points awarded by Greece

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Greek jury:
* Jick Nakassian (jury chairperson)composer, conductor for Greece in the 1980 contest
* Antonios KaratzikosDJ
* Helen Giannatsoulialyricist
* Ioannis Koutsaftakisartists management, A&R
* Marianna Efstratiousinger, songwriter, represented Greece in the 1989 and 1996 contests

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2015

2015
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Eurovision