Greece have held a very consistent record at Eurovision since the turn of the century – between 2004 and 2013 they only finished outside the top 10 once, and that run also included their 2005 win (their sole victory to date). Things got a little wobblier after 2013 with a couple of non-qualifications and lower placed grand final results, but 2021 and 2022 saw returns to the top 10. Last year, their inexperienced and youngest-ever artist, Victor Vernicos, failed to qualify. Can their 2024 entry, the far more experienced Marina Satti, return them to the final and the top 10?

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Marina Satti, unlike her predecessor, brings a wealth of experience – not only as a singer and songwriter, but also music producer and actor. Her music career began back in 2008, and had significant Europe-wide success with her 2017 single “Mantissa”; she’s also been part of the EBU’s European Jazz Orchestra and performed at other jazz festivals. On top of all this, she’s also acted in and written musical scores for the National Theatre of Greece and Greek National Opera amongst others.

“Zari” is both a track that brings back some of those familiar traditional Greek sounds that we’ve become familiar with from many of their previous entries, but in this song, they’re mixed into the current sounds of the Greek music scene. It reminds me of the music you are more likely to hear local young people partying to, rather than the music played in the clubs on the usual tourist nights. There’s also a definite subversiveness to this, upending stereotypes about Greece and Greek music and culture. The music video does a good job of showing this.

This has been immensely popular in Greece, getting Marina her first number one in the Greek charts – which rather confirms the point about this representing the modern Greek scene. I know many people love this, and I understand why. It’s never quite clicked for me, the sum of its parts not fully gelling for my personal taste (and I think that’s a comment several of my friends have made – it has elements they enjoy, but not quite the overall result). I’m looking forward to seeing how this translates to the stage though – and apparently it’s going to be a one-camera take – which could go any way, but I’ll trust the team know what they are doing!

I barely need mention the qualification chances of this, as barring a complete staging or performance disaster (unlikely), this is sailing through to the final, and I think this will stand a good chance of doing very well, especially in the televote, where the Greek-Balkan-Middle Eastern influences in the song will get a load of support from all round the countries in that region and from the diasporas of those countries. It’s crept up and up in the scoreboard app, though some of that will come from people within Greece – but it’s in the top 10 of the odds to win the contest. I think that may be a push, but this certainly could return Greece back to its run of high placings.

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Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest