Greece 2025: Your guide to 'Ethnikós Telikós'

HOW TO WATCH: 'Ethnikós Telikós' is happening on Thursday 30 January. The show starts at 20:00 CET and you'll be able to stream it (outside of Greece) on the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube Channel. In Greece, it will air on ERT.

Greece is holding its first Eurovision national final since 2017. That sounds like appointment viewing to us. So set your reminder now: Thursday night / 20:00 CET / Eurovision YouTube channel. We'll be there, waiting!

If you're joining us, we'll be tuning into the festively named Christmas Theatre in Athens, where 12 songs will be presented in the hopes of becoming Greece's entry to the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel.

Eurovision fans will be welcomed to the Greek gala of song by two very familiar faces: Sakis Rouvas who represented Greece at the Contest in 2004 and 2009, and Helena Paparizou who won Eurovision for Greece in 2005 and who represented the country at the 2001 Contest, as part of Antique.

Together, the pair will be hosting Ethnikós Telikós for the duration of the evening. And we hear they might be partaking in a guest performance or two, on top of their presenting duties...

Voting on the evening should be easy to follow - given Sakis' own experience of presenting the Eurovision Song Contest when it came to Athens in 2006. But ahead of the night, you can anticipate that scores will be coming in from three different sources: a national jury vote (25%), an international jury vote (25%) and a public vote (50%). 

The winner will become Greece's song for Basel. And if you want to familiarise yourself with what the choices are, you can have a listen to each of them below, and also learn a little bit more about each of the artists that you'll be seeing perform on Thursday night: 

RIKKI – Elevator (Up and Down)

As well as working as a composer for documentary scores and TV theme tunes, RIKKI has also acted in a few television shows himself, too.

In recent years the artist has spent time in London, performing gigs at The Hard Rock Cafe, The Notting Hill Arts Club, and Winter Wonderland. 

Thanos Lambrou – Free Love

After signing a record deal with Panik Records in 2022, Thanos Lambrou has released a slew of singles since, as well as writing for other artists, too.

The talented youngster is also an actor. As well as lending his voice to Disney film dubs for Greek audiences, he's currently starring in the drama series Taboo. 

Kostas Ageris – Gi Mou

In 2025, Kostas is celebrating 10 years since he won The Voice of Greece! Since then, he's released a steady stream of singles and a debut album, as well as been able to tour all over Greece. 

Andy Nicolas – Lost My Way

As a songwriter he's written hits for Helena Paparizou, Eleni Foureira and more, racking up more than 200 million YouTube and Spotify streams. And as an artist in his own right, Andy has scored hits with Señorita and Thelo Na Xero, amongst others. 

The singer, who grew up on the Greek island of Rhodes, began performing at the age of just 5.

Klavdia – Asteromáta

She's gone from reaching the final of The Voice of Greece to releasing platinum-selling singles, and has now amassed a following on social media due to her popular covers; currently being shared to her over 200,000 followers on TikTok.

Hits like Haramata and Vasanizomai helped her win Best Newcomer at the Super Music Awards in Cyprus in 2023.

Konstantinos Christoforou & Kostas Karafotis - Parádeisos

Two popular artists who have had careers spanning decades in Greece and Cyprus have paired up for a collaboration especially for the Greek Eurovision pre-selection.

Konstantinos is no stranger to the Eurovision world, having represented his native Cyprus as a solo artist in 1996 and 2005, and also in 2002 as a member of the band One. 

Georgina Kalais & John Vlaseros – High Road

Two Greek artists who have been releasing music for many years, and who have both appeared on Greek TV talent shows in recent years.

Georgina, who released her first album with Sony Music at the age of 6, competed in The Voice of Greece, while John, who is a seasoned stage performer, took part in The X Factor Greece.

BARBZ – Sirens

Her songs have already gone international, appearing on the radio playlists of Germany, Italy, Poland and Slovakia, but it's back home in Greece where BARBZ has achieved most of her success to date.

The singer, who has roots in America and appeared on American's Got Talent, first developed a love for singing at 5 years of age - when she was watching the Eurovision Song Contest!

Evangelia – Vále

Since the turn of the decade, Evangelia has been carving out a huge career for herself in Greece, recently achieveing multi-platinum status on releases such as Fotiá, Páli and Vradia. Vradia in particular held the number 1 spot in Greece during the summer, and has gone on to be streamed over 14 million times on Spotify alone. 

Evangelia's success has led her to appear at festivals across Europe and the US, including ColorDay, EuroPride and Waterboom. 

Dinamiss – Odyssey

Dinamiss is a pop-urban duo made up of sisters Maria and Eleni Dina. Raised in a musical family - with an opera-singer mother and a jazz-pianist father - they developed their artistic identity early, earning diplomas in piano, violin and music theory.

They've appeared together in Fame the Musical, and also The X Factor Greece, where they first rose to fame.

Nafsica – Unhurt Me

She released her self-titled debut album with Universal Greece aged just 9. Since then, she's headed to the US where she won a Berklee songwriting scholarshop, opened for John Legend in New York, and made her Broadway debut in Rocktopia.

Her recent comeback to Greek music, Mia Kardia, achieved great success across streaming and on TikTok.

Xannova Xan – Play It!

She's amassed over a million streams on Spotify and is set to release her debut EP in 2025. This comes over 20 years after representing Greece at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest; giving her country its best result to date with Tora Einai i Seira Mas.

One year before she competed in Junior Eurovision, the young singer performed at the opening ceremony of the Paralympics in Athens. 

The winner of Ethnikós Telikós will have the honour of following in the footsteps of Marina Satti. At the 2024 Contest in Malmö, Marina represented Greece with her song ZARI. 

Marina's star-power performance took the song to the Grand Final, where it finished in 11th place. It became Greece's 41st Grand Final appearance out of 44 Eurovision Song Contest participations.

To keep up to date on everything leading up to the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, bookmark our Basel 2025 page and follow us on socials! You can stream all 37 of the Basel 2025 songs on your preferred platform.

Don't forget to download our app (for iOS / Android), sign up to the official Eurovision Song Contest newsletter, and subscribe to the official podcast!