The second semi-final of Eurovision 2023 has come to an end, and Greece failed to “win a ticket” to Saturday’s grand final. Apparently the reason is that the 16-year-old Victor Vernikos and his song “What They Say” failed to enlist the support of the public.
Forecasts for Victor Vernikos, the “little boy scout” as he was ironically called in Greece, were discouraging from the very beginning, already in Greece and before performing at Eurovision. Critics blamed the lack of singing skills, performing lyrics in a “strange” English-mix language that no one could understand. Some also pointed out that the singer’s family is one of the largest Greek ship owners, and, they say, they just bought him a “ticket to Eurovision”.
“ERT’s selection this year was 100% bad, no matter what its management is now claiming, no matter how they try to pass off black for white. Let’s not kid ourselves, it was a lousy song,” noted one of the sites.
However, state broadcaster ERT said on Friday morning: “Actually, viewers [в зале Евровидения] sang in chorus during Victor’s performance, which was impressive, but they couldn’t send him to the final.”
Greece failed, but Cyprus succeeded, and now the question is which country will Cyprus give 12 points, since the Eurovision vote is more geopolitically motivated.
Last time Greece failed to reach the final in 2018, with Yanna Terzi and the song “My Dream”.
For example, were these songs worse?
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