On 2 December 1996, Elliniki Radiofonia Tileorasi (ERT) announced a submission period for interested artists and composers to submit their entries, in order to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997. An eight-member artistic committee consisting of Dafne Bokota, Dafne Tzaferi, Yiorgos Papadakis, Lefteris Konkalidis, Aleksis Kostalas, Akis Evenis, and Sasa Maneta reviewed 203 received submissions and selected the Greek entry. In February 1997, ERT announced that they had internally selected the song "An den agapisis de th’ agapithis", written by Dimosthenis Strigli as its entry for Eurovision. After selecting the song, ERT began searching for an artist who would perform the selected song, but Dimosthenis stated that he himself would perform the selected song, however ERT still decided to search another artist who will perform the song and ultimately contacted other performers, such as Despina Vandi, Dionyssis Schinas, Fiona and Maria Polykandrioti, before ultimately deciding to replace the selected song. Ultimately, ERT selected "Horepse" performed by Marianna Zorba was selected its entry for the contest.[1][2]
At Eurovision
Heading into the final of the contest, RTÉ reported that bookmakers ranked the entry 24th out of the 25 entries.[3] Marianna Zorba performed 17th on the night of the contest, following Sweden and preceding Malta. At the close of voting, she had received 39 points, placing joint 12th in a field of 25.[4] The Greek jury awarded its 12 points to Cyprus.[5] The members of the Greek jury included Fotini Dourou, Andreas Hatziapostolou, Litsa Sakellariou, Petri Salpea, Giorgos Vrouvas, Thomas Bakalakos, Evangelos Alexandropoulos, Grigoris Lambrianidis, Loukas Anapliotis, Natalia Giakoumi, Pelagia Gialitaki, Maria Grigoriou, Katerina Kalohereti, Hrisostomos Kontakiotis, Nikolaos Lenos, and Maria Sipsa.
