Cyprus Makes it to Eurovision Finals, Greece Falls Short

On Thursday night, entrants from Greece and Cyprus competed for a place in the Eurovision Song Contest finals to be held on Saturday, May 13.

Representing Greece was Victor Vernicos Jørgensen and for Cyprus was Andrew Lambrou. Greece did not receive enough votes to compete in the finals but Lambrou was able to secure a place for Cyprus on Saturday.

This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is being held in the city of Liverpool in the UK. Last year’s winners were Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine. However, the contest could not be held in Ukraine this year due to the ongoing war.

Greece and Cyprus compete in Eurovision semi-finals

Greece and Cyprus competed in the second semi-final round on Thursday for a chance to appear at the Eurovision Song Contest final on Saturday. They appeared alongside 16 others.

Albania, Cyprus, Estonia, Belgium, Lithuania, Poland, Austria, Australia, Armenia, and Slovenia are among the ten countries that qualified for the finals on Thursday.

Your 10 qualifiers from tonight's #Eurovision  Second Semi-Final 🇦🇱🇨🇾🇪🇪🇧🇪🇦🇹🇱🇹🇵🇱🇦🇺🇦🇲🇸🇮 pic.twitter.com/71mo54SI1n

— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) May 11, 2023

This year, the Eurovision Song Contest declared major alterations to the voting process. Juries did not participate in the voting process during the semi-finals after the discovery of unusual discrepancies in voting last year. All six juries traded votes in the contest held in Turin, Italy, an action that marred the competition.

The organizers of the Eurovision song contest have therefore extended voting to its global audience for the first time in the competition’s history, and reduced the role of professional juries.

Greek entry

Victor Vernicos Jørgensen 16, was born in Athens and is half Greek and half Danish. He has been involved in music since he was 4 years old. He has taken vocal and guitar lessons and also attended music seminars.

He characterizes his Eurovision song as a festive, atmospheric ballad. In 2021 he released his first song.

To select its 2023 Eurovision song entry, Greece held an internal selection process with 106 songs submitted. The songs were shortlisted to just seven that were evaluated by two juries; a public jury (50.6% weight) and a professional jury (49.4% weight).

Cypriot entry

Andrew Lambrou is a Greek Australian singer hailing from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. as born in 1998 to a family of Greek-Cypriot descent. One of his grandfathers is from Paphos, Cyprus, and Lambrou’s ancestry also includes roots from the Greek island of Lemnos.

Lambrou previously attempted to represent Australia in the Eurovision last year with the song “Electrify”. He ultimately came seventh in the national final Eurovision – Australia Decides 2022.

In 2013, Lambrou’s musical talents first became known after he posted a cover of Evanescence’s “My Immortal” on YouTube. His popularity grew when a music page in Spain shared a 15-second cover of Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” uploaded on Instagram, and he gained over 2,000 followers overnight.