Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979

Greece was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 with the song "Socrates", composed by Doros Georgiadis, with lyrics by Sotia Tsotou, and performed by Elpida. The Greek participating broadcaster Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi (ERT) held a national final to select its entry, with the winner being chosen by an "expert" jury.

Eurovision Song Contest 1979
Participating broadcaster	Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi (ERT)
Country	Greece
National selection
Selection process	National final
Selection date(s)	5 February 1979
Selected artist(s)	Elpida
Selected song	"Socrates"
Selected songwriter(s)	Doros Georgiadis Sotia Tsotou
Finals performance
Final result	8th, 69 points
Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1978 • 1979 • 1980►

Before Eurovision

National final

Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi (ERT) held the national final on 5 February 1979 at the Municipal Theater in Piraeus, hosted by Vasilis Tsivilikas. The winning song was chosen by a jury of 65 people who awarded each song a mark out of 10.

Final – 5 February 1979

Draw	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Kostas Hatzis	"Na'han oli i anthropi mia agapi opos ki ego"	379	3
2	Bessy Argyraki	"Athena (mana mou)"	322	5
3	Sofia Zaninou	"Stin arhi"	271	6
4	Christie Stasinopoulou	"Dose mou enan sticho"	462	2
5	Elpida	"Sokrati"	528	1
6	Paola Komini, Maria Filosofou, Fotini Filosofou, Dimitris Kontoyiannis, and Stefanos Dekerian	"Dio se mia ombrella"	349	4

At Eurovision

"Sokrati" was re-titled "Socrates" for Eurovision, and was performed seventh on the evening (following Monaco's "Notre vie c'est la musique" by Laurent Vaguener and preceding Switzerland's "Trödler Und Co" by Peter, Sue and Marc and Pfuri, Gorps & Kniri). At the close of voting, it had received 69 points, placing 8th in a field of 19.^[1]

Elpida was accompanied on stage by Lia Vissi (who will later represent Cyprus in 1985), Polina (who was to represent Greece in 1986, but Greece withdrew), Yiannis Samsiaris and Stelios Goulielmos, all four of them being backing vocalists.^[2]

It was succeeded as Greek entry at the 1980 contest by "Autostop" by Anna Vissi & The Epikouri.

Voting

Points awarded to Greece[3] Score Country 12 points 10 points  Israel  Portugal 8 points 7 points  Monaco  Netherlands  Spain   Switzerland 6 points 5 points  Luxembourg 4 points  France  Ireland 3 points 2 points  Austria  Germany  Sweden 1 point  Belgium  Denmark

Points awarded by Greece[3] Score Country 12 points  Denmark 10 points  Ireland 8 points  France 7 points  Finland 6 points  Spain 5 points  Luxembourg 4 points  Israel 3 points  Netherlands 2 points   Switzerland 1 point  Sweden

References

1. "Final of Jerusalem 1979". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
2. "Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979" (in Greek). musiccorner.gr. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
3. "Results of the Final of Jerusalem 1979". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.