Last year, Greece returned to a national final format and one could say, it did indeed pay off, so now they are going even bigger. Greek broadcaster (ERT) have finally decided to open their song submission period, and with that, revealed details regarding their 2026 selection method.
Ethnikós Telikós 2026
For 2026, the national selection is gonna be even bigger. Rumors were even going on since shortly after the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest had concluded, but eventually confirmed by the Greek broadcaster themselves. The 2026 national final, will feature two semi-finals, as well as a final. The dates for the three shows are however, still to be confirmed.
Rules for the national final, mainly follows the standard rules for the Eurovision Song Contest, with the inclusion of a Greek twist, which do refer to participants being of Greek citizenship, whether participants wish to sing in either Greek or any other language and such, to put it shortly.
For now, there is only one key date, and that is the deadline for submissions, which has been set to the 2nd November 2025.
It is however, clearly conducted in the Greek regulations, how the national final will be decided. A total of 28 songs are expected to be selected for the national final, with 4 additional songs as well being picked as a back-up. The 28 songs selected for the national final, will be divided into the two semi-finals, meaning each semi-final will consist of 14 songs.
The final is also expected to feature a total of 14 songs, with 7 songs qualifying from each semi-final. The semi-finals will be solely decided by the public vote. However, it is stated, that should the songs that finished tied for 7th place in a semi-final, then both or more will advance to the final. In the final however, the winner will be decided by both the public vote and the juries.
The juries will however, be split into two sections, one international jury and one Greek jury, both consisting of 5 members.
The point system for the final, is also explained in the regulations with both juries awarding the standard Eurovision Song Contest scores, by awarding 12, 10 and 8-1 points, meanwhile the televote will do the same, but with each scored doubled. In case of a tie, the winner of the Greek national final, will be the participant who received the higher amount of points from the public vote. Should the public vote be considered invalid and void, the juries will then decide the winner, with the Greek juries having the final say, in case of a tie as well.
To those who watched the Greek national final earlier this year, it will follow the same format, so to say. However, for 2025, only 12 songs were selected for the final, with the final being the only show held.
For 2025, Klavdia was crowned the winner of the national final and therefor given the chance to represent Greece with her song “Asteromáta” in Basel, Switzerland. Her succes at the contest, could be the potential reason for why Greece is once again going with a national final, since she managed to impress both juries and viewers in the grand final, which both awarded her 8th place, but after the scores were combined, she was lifted up to 6th place overall, with a combined score of 231 points.
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Source(s): ERT.gr (In Greek)