{"id":424696,"date":"2026-05-12T23:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/424696\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:58:11","slug":"greece-again-in-eurovision-final-with-ferto-by-akylas-vid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/424696\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece Again in Eurovision Final with ‘Ferto’ by Akylas (Vid)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greece\u2019s entry on Tuesday evening secured its place in Saturday\u2019s Eurovision grand final<\/a> in Vienna, as Akylas delivered one of the most visually distinctive performances in this year\u2019s competition with \u201cFerto,\u201d confirming the strong momentum and odds-makers\u2019 predictions throughout the past week.<\/p>\n

Akylas\u2019 performance was the first to be announced for qualification for the final in Tuesday\u2019s semi-final out of a total of 15 entries. A second semi-final will be held on Thursday. Under Eurovision rules, the qualifiers are announced in random order during the broadcast rather than by ranking position, meaning viewers do not immediately know who finished first, who barely qualified or the televote\/jury point total.<\/p>\n

Qualifying from Tuesday\u2019s semi-final and through to the grand final are, besides Greece, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, Israel, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Serbia and Sweden.<\/p>\n

Watch Akylas\u2019 performance in Vienna below:<\/p>\n

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The qualification marked one of the most convincing Eurovision performances by a Greek entry in recent years and has already prompted comparisons with some of the country\u2019s strongest appearances in the contest, from Helena Paparizou\u2019s 2005 victory with \u201cMy Number One\u201d to the high-energy entries of the late 2000s and early 2010s that established the country as a consistent Eurovision contender.<\/p>\n

Unlike many previous Greek entries built around ethnic-pop formulas, Akylas approached Eurovision with a more contemporary and theatrical aesthetic, blending multilingual lyrics, electronic production and stylized Mediterranean imagery into a performance that stood out in a crowded semi-final field.<\/p>\n

\"Akylas<\/p>\n

Akylas, representing Greece, performs \u201cFerto\u201d during the first semi-final of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, in Vienna, Austria, May 12, 2026. REUTERS\/Lisa Leutner.<\/p>\n

Over the past week, increasingly positive reactions from rehearsals and Eurovision press audiences in Vienna, where the Greek entry steadily emerged as one of the semi-final\u2019s strongest qualifiers.<\/p>\n

The successful qualification also reflects a broader shift in Greek Eurovision strategy. Rather than relying exclusively on traditional motifs, this year\u2019s entry embraced the cyber-era visual language that increasingly defines the contest \u2014 extremely fast-paced staging, strong symbolism and immediate televote appeal.<\/p>\n

International media coverage over recent days has described Akylas as one of Eurovision 2026\u2019s surprise breakout acts, with outlets including the BBC and Eurovision-focused European broadcasters highlighting the Greek state broadcaster\u2019s (ERT) sharp staging, multilingual lyrics and strong audience response in Vienna<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Several commentators noted parallels with the contest\u2019s growing preference for visually bold, genre-crossing performances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greece\u2019s entry on Tuesday evening secured its place in Saturday\u2019s Eurovision grand final in Vienna, as Akylas delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[217797,156,173340,217798,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-424696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-akylas","tag-entertainment","tag-eurovision-2026","tag-eurovision-greece","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}