Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003
Greece was represented by Mando in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the song "Never Let You Go".
Eurovision Song Contest 2003 | ||||
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Country | Greece | |||
National selection | ||||
Selection process | Ena tragoudi gia tin Europi | |||
Selection date(s) | 26 February 2003 | |||
Selected entrant | Mando | |||
Selected song | "Never Let You Go" | |||
Selected songwriter(s) |
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Finals performance | ||||
Final result | 17th, 25 points | |||
Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
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Before Eurovision
Ena tragoudi gia tin Europi
Ena tragoudi gia tin Europi was the Greek national final developed by ERT to select the Greek entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003.[1] The competition took place on 26 February 2003 at the Ciné Keramikos Nightclub in Athens, hosted by Dafni Bokota, Rika Vagiani and Popi Tsapanidou and televised on ET1.
Competing entries
Artists and composers had until 20 October 2002 to submit their entries. From all 243 entries submitted, ten entries were selected by a seven-member committee to participate in the national final. The committee consisted of Evridiki, Paschalis Arvanitidis, Dafni Bokota, Giorgos Katsaros, Iro Trigoni, Johnny Kalimeris and Antonis Andrikakis.[2] The competing artists were revealed on 10 February 2003 and the songs in their entirety were presented on 23 February 2003.[1]
Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) |
---|---|---|
Alexandros Chatzis | "I agapi einai dromos – L'amore e la strada" | Persa Souka, Vanta Koutsokosta |
Dimitra Aggelou & Alter Ego | "Kapoios erotas fotia" | Christos Giannopoulos |
Giannis Vardis | "Mia stigmi" | Dimitris Kontopoulos, Michalis Sfikas, Dimitris Sotakis |
Giorgos Kaminaris, Lakis Papadopoulos & Liana Papalexi | "Kapote – Come With Me" | Giorgos Kaminaris, Stefanos Kotronakis |
Giorgos Nassios | "It's Alright" | Giorgos Nassios |
Kostas Chrisis | "Gotta Be a Way for Love" | Konstantinos Tseleste, Kostas Chrisis |
Mando | "Never Let You Go" | Mando, Terry Siganos |
Maria Atsopardi | "Tis nychtes megalono" | Panagiotis Giatrakos, Giannis Pattas |
Marian Georgiou | "Can't Escape – Come Back" | Konstantinos Tseleste |
Sabrina | "Camera" | Nikos Doukakis |
Final
The final took place on 26 February 2003. Ten songs competed and the winner, "Never Let You Go" performed by Mando, was selected by a combination of jury voting (40%), SMS voting which ran between 23 and 26 February 2003 (30%) and telephone voting (30%).[3][4] The jury consisted of Giorgos Katsaros, Rena Kapitsala, Giorgos Papastefanou, Johnny Kalimeris, Antonis Andrikakis, Marija Naumova and Munro Forbes.[5] 137,160 telephone votes and 26,821 SMS votes were cast during the show.
Final – 26 February 2003 | ||||||||
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Draw | Artist | Song | Jury (40%) |
SMS (30%) | Televote (30%) | Place | ||
Votes | Place | Votes | Place | |||||
1 | Giorgos Nassios | "It's Alright" | 5 | 780 | 8 | 5,320 | 7 | 7 |
2 | Sabrina | "Camera" | 2 | 4,679 | 3 | 18,721 | 4 | 3 |
3 | Maria Atsopardi | "Tis nychtes megalono" | 6 | 941 | 6 | 6,388 | 6 | 6 |
4 | Dimitra Aggelou & Alter Ego | "Kapoios erotas fotia" | 8 | 514 | 10 | 3,477 | 9 | 9 |
5 | Mando | "Never Let You Go" | 1 | 5,376 | 2 | 34,096 | 1 | 1 |
6 | Alexandros Chatzis | "I agapi einai dromos – L'amore e la strada" | 4 | 3,166 | 4 | 21,063 | 3 | 4 |
7 | Kostas Chrisis | "Gotta Be a Way for Love" | 9 | 789 | 7 | 4,918 | 8 | 8 |
8 | Giannis Vardis | "Mia stigmi" | 3 | 8,595 | 1 | 32,096 | 2 | 2 |
9 | Marian Georgiou | "Can't Escape – Come Back" | 10 | 569 | 9 | 2,860 | 10 | 10 |
10 | Giorgos Kaminaris, Lakis Papadopoulos & Liana Papalexi | "Kapote – Come With Me" | 7 | 1,412 | 5 | 8,221 | 5 | 5 |
At Eurovision
"Never Let You Go" was performed seventeenth on the night (following Ukraine's Olexandr Ponomariov with "Hasta La Vista" and preceding Norway's Jostein Hasselgård with "I'm Not Afraid To Move On"). For her Eurovision appearance, Mando wore a navy blue gown, with a very tight lace-up bodice. She also had several backup dancers. At the close of voting, it had received 25 points, placing 17th in a field of 26.As Greece failed to reach the top 11 in the final, the country was forced to compete in the semi-final of the 2004 Contest.
It was succeeded as Greek representative at the 2004 Contest by Sakis Rouvas with "Shake It".
Points awarded by Greece
12 points | Cyprus |
10 points | Russia |
8 points | Belgium |
7 points | Turkey |
6 points | Poland |
5 points | Spain |
4 points | Romania |
3 points | Israel |
2 points | Austria |
1 point | Croatia |
12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
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5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
References
- Opheim, Bjørn Erik (10 February 2003). "Marie N member of Greek final jury". Esctoday.
- Opheim, Bjørn Erik (18 December 2002). "Amount of Greek entries up from 130 to 243". Esctoday.
- "GREEK NATIONAL FINAL 2003".
- "Ο Βαρδής πρώτος στην ψηφοφορία κοινού... Η Μαντώ όμως πήρε τη νίκη με την ψήφο της επιτροπής..." www.musiccorner.gr (in Greek). 28 February 2003.
- "Παρασκήνια 2003: Μεγάλα ονόματα, πενιχρό αποτέλεσμα και στη μέση ο… Ντέμης Ρούσσος". INFE Greece (in Greek). 20 February 2017.