Greece was represented at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2002 The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following the country's victory at the with the song Everybody (Tanel Padar and Dave Benton song), "Everybody" by Tanel Pada ...

with the song "S.A.G.A.P.O.", written and performed by

Michalis Rakintzis Mihalis Rakintzis (Greek: Μιχάλης Ρακιντζής; born on 3 April 1957) is a Greek singer. He was born in Athens and studied Mechanical Engineering in the United Kingdom.Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly shortened to ERT (), is the state-owned public radio and television broadcaster of Greece. History Overview ERT began broadcasting in 1938 as the Radio Broadcasting Service or YRE (). Followin ...

(ERT), organised a public selection process entitled ''2002'' to determine its entry for the contest. Held on 26 February 2002 in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, the event saw 10 entries compete to be the Greek entry; the results were determined by a combination of jury,

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

and

televoting Televoting (also telephone voting, phone voting, and call-in voting) is a method of decision making and opinion polling conducted by telephone. Televoting can also extend to voting by SMS text message via a mobile cell phone. Broadcast contest ...

. The song "S.A.G.A.P.O." by Michalis Rakintzis received the most votes and was selected to represent the nation. Greece performed fourth out of the 24 countries competing in the contest and placed 17th with 27 points.

Background

The

Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly shortened to ERT (), is the state-owned public radio and television broadcaster of Greece. History Overview ERT began broadcasting in 1938 as the Radio Broadcasting Service or YRE (). Followin ...

(ERT) is a full member of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

(EBU), thus eligible to participate in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

representing Greece. Prior to the 2002 contest, Greece had participated in the contest 22 times since its debut entry in . To this point, the nation achieved its best placing at the previous contest in 2001, where the song " Die for You" performed by

Antique An antique () is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely to describe any object that i ...

placed third. Greece's least successful result was in 1998 when it placed 20th with the song "Mia krifi evaisthisia" by

Thalassa Thalassa (; ; Attic Greek: , ''thálatta'') was the general word for 'sea' and for its divine female personification in Greek mythology. The word may have been of Pre-Greek origin and connected to the name of the Mesopotamian primordial sea godde ...

, receiving only twelve points in total, all from Cyprus.

Before Eurovision

''2002''

''2002'' was the Greek national final developed by ERT to select its entry for the

. The competition, hosted by

Dafni Bokota Dafni Bokota (; born 1960) is a Greek singer, presenter and former spokesperson for the Greek national broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT). Biography Dafni Bokota was born in Koukaki, Athens, Greece in 1960. She studied English and ...

and directed by Dafni Tzaferi, took place on 26 February 2002 at the REX Music Hall in

; it was broadcast on television station ET1, radio station

Second Programme Second Programme (, ''Deftero Programma'') is the second public radio station of Greece's state broadcaster, ERT. The station consists of Greek music and culture broadcasts. History The Second Programme originated on May 11, 1952 as a result of ...

and via the ERT website. Ten candidate entries competed over two rounds of voting. After the first round consisting of all ten candidate entries, jury voting selected five to proceed to the second round. The winner of the event was then selected by a 50/50 combination of jury voting and public

. The six-member jury consisted of

Giorgos Katsaros Giorgos Katsaros () (born on 7 March 1934 in Corfu) is a noted Greek people, Greek musician and songwriter. He plays the alto saxophone. He has made a variety of recordings, collaborating amongst others with Greek people, Greek musical composers ...

(composer and jury president), Antonis Andrikakis (General Director of

ERA An era is a span of time. Era or ERA may also refer to: * Era (geology), a subdivision of geologic time * Calendar era Education * Academy of European Law (German: '), an international law school * ERA School, in Melbourne, Australia * E ...

), Giorgos Kyvelos (producer and advisor to the ERT president), Lefteris Koggalidis (communications, promotions and public relations at ERT), Bokota (television presenter) and Sinia Kousoula (international relations at ERT). During the voting phase,

One 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, who would represent , performed as special guests and video clips of previous Greek Eurovision entries were shown, including "" by

Marinella Kyriaki Papadopoulou (; born 19 May 1938), known by her stage name Marinella (), is a Greek singer whose career has spanned several decades. She is well regarded due to her impressive vocal range.Dragoumanos, Petros (2009). ''Elliniki Diskogr ...

(1974), "" by Paschalis, Marianna, Robert and Bessy (1977), "Charlie Chaplin" by

Tania Tsanaklidou Soultana (Tania) Tsanaklidou (, born 9 April 1952) is a Greek artist, both singer and actress, who represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978. Biography Tania was born in Drama, Greece on 9 April 1952 and was raised in Thessalonik ...

(1978), "" by Elpida (1979), "Autostop" by

Anna Vissi Anna Vissi (, , ; born 20 December 1957) is a Greek Cypriot singer. She studied music at conservatories and performed locally before moving to the professional scene in Athens, in 1973, where she signed with Minos EMI#Merger with Minos Matsas ...

and the Epikouri (1980), "Stop" by

Bang Bang, bang!, or bangs may refer to: Products * M1922 Bang rifle, a US semi-automatic rifle designed by Søren Hansen Bang * Bang, a model car brand * Bang (beverage), an energy drink Geography * Bang, Central African Republic * Bang, Lores ...

(1987), "" by

Sophia Vossou Sophia Vossou (; born 5 December 1961) is a Greek singer best known abroad for representing Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest 1991 where she was placed 13th with the song " I Anixi". Biography Vossou was born in 1961 in Patras. She grew up ...

(1991), "" by

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

(1992), "" by

Katy Garbi Katerina "Katy" Garbi (, ; born 8 June 1961) is a Greek singer. Her career has spanned over 35 years with over 2 million records sold in Greece and abroad. Garbi's discography is marked by several multi-platinum releases, including ''Arhizo Polem ...

(1993), and "Die for You" by Antique (2001). Prior to the event, ERT opened a submissions window for Greek composers, lyricists, and performers to submit their original songs for consideration by 17 December 2001. By the close of the submissions window, 158 songs had been submitted; the ten songs for the event were then selected by the six-member jury and were announced on 10 January 2002. Nearly 95,000 votes were cast during the show and when the combined results were presented, it was revealed that "S.A.G.A.P.O." performed by

Reception

In the days following Rakintzis' selection, Greek press reported on an issue during the televoting phase in that while the process and phone numbers were explained, the host never announced the commencement of the voting period. Additionally, the singer was accused of using playback for the performance and it was noted that there were sound problems overall. At a press conference held by the artist, Rakintzis stated that he was willing to resign from being the Greek entrant due to the voting issue, but ERT had responded that if he were to not represent the nation, then they would pull out of the contest. Rakintzis subsequently opted to remain the Greek entrant. Following his selection, Rakintzis opted to not organise a promotional tour to other countries, believing that music had nothing to do with advertising.

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 took place at

Saku Suurhall Unibet Arena (named Saku Suurhall until 31 December 2022) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the Haabersti (subdistrict), Haabersti subdistrict of the Estonian capital, Tallinn. Opened in November 2001, it is the largest multi-purpose hall in th ...

in Tallinn, Estonia, on 25 May 2002. The participants list included the previous year's winning country, the " Big Four" countries, consisting of , , and the , any eligible countries which did not compete in the 2001 contest, and countries which had obtained the highest average points total at the previous year's contest, up to 24 total participants. As Greece placed third at the 2001 contest, it was permitted to participate this year. Bokota provided commentary for the broadcast within Greece, a task she had performed for ERT since the 1999 contest. For the performance, Rakintzis was joined by four vocalists/musicians: Giannis Karmas (keyboards), Michalis Kyriakidis (guitar), Nikos Menemenoglou (drums) and Terry Mavridis (bass). The ensemble took part in rehearsals for the performance during the week of 20-25 May 2002, which concluded with the final dress rehearsal on 25 May where the national juries of each country viewed the performances and recorded their votes. They performed fourth in the running order at the contest and wore "militaristic" leather outfits which were designed by Rakintzis. The outfits would later earn Rakintzis the

Barbara Dex Award The Barbara Dex Award was a fan-voted accolade awarded annually to the worst-dressed contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest. The award was created by the fansite The House of Eurovision in 1997, which hosted it until the site's closure in 20 ...

for worst-dressed act at the year's contest. The song finished 17th out of 24 with 27 points, receiving points from four of the 24 participating countries. Greek press was critical of the song and its performance. Following the contest at a press conference in Athens, Rakintzis stated "I came close to throwing down my microphone and walking off the stage," commenting on the sound quality of the performance which he claimed was responsible for his low contest placement. The Eurovision committee later released a statement that "there was no technical problem with the sound, if there was a problem it was with the singer."

Voting

Voting during the show involved each country awarding points from 1-8, 10 and 12 as determined by either 100%

or a combination of 50% televoting and 50% national jury. In cases where televoting was not possible, only the votes of the eight-member national juries were tabulated. Greece received 27 points, which included the top 12 points from

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, to which the nation also awarded its 12 points. was the Greek spokesperson announcing the country's voting results during the show, a task he had performed since the 1998 contest. The tables below visualise a complete breakdown of the points awarded to and awarded by Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002.

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2002

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...