THIS YEAR'S ENTRY

 SELECTION
The economic crisis in Greece through a question over their participation in Oslo. However instead of a rumoured withdrawal, ERT decided on a different type of selection. Instead of approaching the country's major stars, it was decided to have an open selection and nine songs were initially chosen to compete in the Greek selection. However after two songs were released too early, only seven entries competed in the Greek final, which was held on March 12th in Athens and hosted by Rika Vagiani & Tzeni Balatsinou. The winner was chosen by televoting and a jury. In the closest selection of the year, three songs tied at the end of the voting, however the televoting, which Giorgos Alkaios & Friends won, took precedence.

 BIOGRAPHY
Giorgos Alkaios will take his friends to Oslo and they'll give probably one of the most energetic performances of this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Giorgos Alkaios is one of the few Greek artists who holds the record for consecutive concerts during the last decade in Cyprus, Germany, England, Canada, Australia and in the USA. Over the years more than 300,000 people have watched Giorgos performing live.

Giorgos Alkaios is known to non-Greeks as well, due to his appearance in charts around the world. Outside Greece he is considered as an ethnic artist, and for that he has been invited to perform in prestigious venues.

His song "Syrmatoplegma" became the anthem of the famous football team Galatasaray, when the team won the transcontinental Cup and the UEFA cup.

His first platinum record abroad came from Sweden, when Antique performed his song "Opa-Opa" a top hit in charts around Europe.

On stage in Oslo, Giorgos will be accompanied by Lazos Ioannidis, Anastasios Kanaridis, Petros Zlatkos, Evgenios Buli and Gogua Iakovos collectively known as Friends.

 REACTION
The choice of "OPA" was a somewhat controversial choice and divided local fans. The economic crisis has also meant that the promotion of the Greek entry is not on the scale of recent year, and indeed ERT did not pay for a promotional video and instead it was left to the artist to fund it.

Despite this, the song is the favourite to qualify and to win the first semi-final. Greece is also among the Top 10 favourites to win the contest, although it can still be backed at 25/1. The Greek entry is not doing as well on internet polls and is barely registering in the Top 10. 

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