Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023

Victor Vernicos was selected internally by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

On 26 August 2022, ERT opened a submission period where artists and composers were able to submit their proposals for consideration by the broadcaster until 9 October 2022. Artists were required to be signed to record labels and their proposal had to contain up to three songs, indicate the accompanying artistic group and include ideas or concepts for the song's promotion and presentation.[9] 106 songs were received by the submission deadline.[10] Seven entries were then shortlisted by a seven-member artistic committee and were announced on 28 December 2022 to be: "Shout Out!" performed by Antonia Kaouri and Maria Maragkou, "Holy Water" performed by Klavdia, "We're Young" performed by Konstantina Iosifidou, "Somewhere to Go" performed by Leon of Athens, "Liar" performed by Melissa Mantzoukis, "Proud" performed by Monika and "What They Say" performed by Victor Vernicos.[11][12]

The seven acts were then evaluated by a public committee consisting of a total of 70 members randomly selected from 2,982 applications based on five age groups: 25 members in the 18 to 24 category, 20 members in the 25 to 34 category, 15 members in the 35 to 44 category and 10 members in the over 45 category, as well as an artistic commitee of ERT, which consisted of Petros Adam (music producer), Leonidas Antonopoulos (journalist and music producer), Fotis Apergis (ERT radio director), Konstantinos Bourounis (head of ERT's youth program), Maria Kozakou (director of the Second Programme of Hellenic Radio), Dimitris Papadimitriou (music composer) and Yannis Petridis, (music producer).[13][14] On 19 January 2023, ERT shortlisted three final songs from the seven, which was the outcome of the public committee vote, followed by a respective evaluation by the artistic committee. The final three were announced through ERT1 show, Proian se eidon tin mesimvrian (Greek: Πρωίαν σε είδον την μεσημβρίαν).[15]

The combination of votes from the public committee (50.6%) and the artistic committee (49.4%) then selected the Greek entry.[16][17] This marked the first time that ERT had opted for a format where the entry was selected by two panels.[18] Greek-Danish singer Victor Vernicos was announced as the Greek representative for the 2023 contest through ERT1's newscast on 30 January 2023.[19] His entry, "What They Say", was released on 12 March 2023.[20]

Following the announcement of Vernicos as the Greek entrant, Mantzoukis publicly protested the results of the process, threatening legal action.[21][22][23] Mantzoukis and her legal team cited two concerns in their challenge of the results. Prior to the artistic committee's vote, it was reported that Kaouri and Maragkou had withdrawn themselves from consideration, leaving only two entrants as options. Despite this, all three acts were awarded points by the committee. Secondly, they alleged that even if all three acts were considered, the point values awarded do not sum to the quantity of points available, and if they had, Mantzoukis would have won.[21][23] Artistic committee member Kozakou then explained in an interview on ERT's Proian se eidon tin mesimvrian that point values were not awarded based on awards of first, second and third place by the committee (12, 10 or 8 points, respectively, in Eurovision fashion), but from 12 through 4 points (first through seventh) to align the total point values with the quantity awarded by the public committee.[24][25] Mantzoukis' lawyer Christos Zotiadis responded during an interview on Star Channel's show Breakfast @ Star that they were unsatisfied with ERT's response, and requested that the detailed committee votes for each member at each voting stage be released for transparency.[24][26]

A temporary injunction halting the Greek participation was denied by Greek courts on 6 March, citing the short time period between then and the EBU's 13 March deadline for entry submissions.[27] Mantzoukis' lawsuit to be declared the winner and awarded damages is anticipated to be heard in mid-May following the contest.[27][28][29]

To promote the entry, a music video of the song, directed by Yiannis Georgioudakis, was filmed.[30] The video was produced by PickCodes, with Kostas Kalimeris, Steve Sovolos, and Vangelis Gialamas taking part in its production.[31] It was scheduled to be released on 6 March alongside the song itself, but was delayed due to the Tempi train crash.[30] The song and video were eventually released on 12 March through ERT's over-the-top media service ERTFlix.[20][32] To further promote the entry, Vernicos took part in a meet-and-greet event on 6 April organised by ERT. The event was attended by the Greek Eurovision delegation, local British embassy representatives, as well as mainstream print, television and radio media. He sang his entry "What They Say" live with a guitar and covered a number of past Eurovision entries.[33]