The lawyers of Melissa Mantzoukis, one of the last remaining possible entrants of Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest of 2023, will challenge the outcome of the Greek internal selection of this year.
Challenging the Greek 2023 results
The lawyers of Melissa Mantzoukis, who competed in the internal Greek selection of 2023, will challenge the national Greek result of this year. Melissa’s lawyers made this public on the Greek morning show “Super Katerina”. Melissa’s team especially wants to challenge the results of the jury assembled by ERT, the Greek national broadcaster, that decided 49.6% of the final result.
A letter to ERT
A letter to ERT was sent by Melissa’s legal team with the demand to explain two factors: How it is possible that the jury still voted although they were informed that two chosen jury members withdrew? But also how it was possible that Melissa received 440 points from the jury when there were three songs still in the running, thus the minimum score should have been at least 560?
What transpired?
The thing that transpires was that the ERT Committee formed by the Greek national broadcaster had a meeting with all three remaining acts to come with a definitive national result; during this meeting all sorts of things were discussed, like: The recorded music video of each song, how promotion would be executed, and overall details of the performances of these remaining acts. Melissa supposedly managed to do really well, but ultimately did not get the Greek ticket to go to the 2023 contest.
Melissa’s legal team made the votes of the internal Greek voting procedure known to the public, and they were the following:
- Victor Vernicos – What They Say – 740 votes
- Maria Maragou and Antonia Kaouri – Shout Out – 720 votes
- Melissa Mantzoukis – Liar – 440 votes
What we know by now
What we know by now is that ERT has not given any comments when it comes down to the matter at stake, and we do not know whether this will happen either silent or publicly.
On January 30th 2023 ERT announced that Victor Vernicos will represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest of 2023 in Liverpool (UK) with the song “What They Say”.
