ATHENS – Last winning in 2005 with Helen Paparizou’s hit My Number One, Greece is hoping for another winner in 2023 in the kitschy Eurovision song contest and has narrowed the field of contests to seven.

It’s a secret who they are after a Creative Committee narrowed the field and now a Public Committee selected by lottery will review at the state-run ERT public broadcaster, in separate rooms, said Eurovision Fun.

ERT’s legal department has drawn up specific confidentiality protocols, which the 70 members of the panel will be asked to follow. so that none of the songs are leaked, but no guarantee they won’t.

After they give their take, the names of the contestants and songs will be announced and the artists will have separate appointments with their teams and the ERT committee to present their plan if selected as the entry.

Greece had 10 out of 13 top 10 results from 2001-23, including third-place finishes for Antique in 2001 (with Paparizou as lead singer), Sakis Rouvas in 2004 and Greek-American Kalomira in 2008.

Greece didn’t get back into the top 10 from 2014-19, twice not even getting to the semi-final stage that’s televised – in 2016 and 2018 – but in 2021, Stefania finished 10^th with Last Dance and Greek-Norwegian singer  Amanda Tenfjord finished 8^th with Die Together in 2022, a good showing.