Greece 2026: Akylas with 'Ferto'
Akylas has swept to victory in Greece with a perfect score, winning all of the international jury, domestic jury and televote.
So full honesty up front, sometimes these are the entries I take the longest time warming up to and seeing the potential of, and have the hardest time personally discerning the quality of. If we're putting Akylas in with the company he wants to be in: Kaarija and Joost certainly fell into that bracket, Lasagna took a couple of listens but I was on board in good time and Tommy Cash. For comparison however, this isn't 20x better than Moldova's entry as the odds rate it and I say that with Hellenic blood running through my veins. Of course we can’t really apply a win chance linearly like that but you get the idea.
Fortunately, through a combination of seeing Greece's upturn and getting excited over Good Job Nicky's snippet, I've found myself on the right side of this. Also, more than my own opinion, I'm not blind to the fanaticism around this: there are a lot who care very strongly for this entry and that's a good thing for it's chances. There’s not much reason also why this would prove ‘just a bubble thing’, the casual appeal is also obvious and potentially higher. As a song I don’t have a lot of analysis: it’s catchy, fun, has a good hook and keeps things interesting for the 3 minutes. Overall ‘Ferto’ is it’s own beast against those that it will be compared to and does have that Greek Ethnic touch to it but there are a couple of similarities, mainly in the opening for me which stylistically feels a similar instant “what’s this?” intro to ‘Cha Cha Cha’. We’ve later got the Joost-like emotional switch up which gives Akylas a chance to deliver some notes before pulling the rug back again which is the most interesting aspect of this; clever in it’s stupidity and subversion but also pushing this a bit further to troll territory. It does work in the moment, and with more going on around it for an even bigger whiplash transition would be better.
What we got at Sing For Greece was at most a vague blueprint thrown together on a small stage by a staging director tasked with overseeing 28 performances. It’s a strong performance in that context and Akylas does more than fine vocally with a difficult song that keeps him very busy. The goal for Vienna is to balance the four needs of being big enough in concept, whilst allowing Akylas’ natural charisma to shine, whilst getting the message across and also not unnecessarily tanking jury credibility. It’s not been confirmed yet if Fokas will be the man overseeing the Greek staging for Vienna too but based on reports I’d assume so, probably with heavy input from Akylas himself- a character likely to have some creative ideas.
Last year's maths and low winning score are a cautionary tale in being too gung-ho in opposing Φερτο, and for Greece to win something similar is needed: A big televote score 280+, jury respect around or above the 150~ mark and nothing else popping up with a higher points ceiling. What does go hugely in their favour is the return of Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova where this could go very big, the missing 5 are also probably a net positive. Yes Televote points are lost there but there's fewer juries to hold this back and in real terms, that hurts other countries more, on paper anyway, and Greece was one of the big winners from the contest composition before a snippet was released.
Now for the section I’d saved to type in on the results- I’d hoped Akylas would receive more of a test here on the juries to try and draw some more solid conclusions for his Vienna potential. Instead, I don’t think there was anything in the field that would be heading top 10 or maybe even top 15 with jurors there so the complete beat down of the rest doesn’t tell us a whole lot for his outright chances, beyond this not heading for the 60~ or so Joost was estimated at before his DQ. Whether this is 100J, 150J, 175J or even 200J is still up for debate.
A couple of years ago when Switzerland won over Croatia it was felt that the missing Balkans could prove the difference, well now is a bit of a opportunity to test that theory. Without seeing all the entries yet this seems like the best chance for one of these fun songs that have dominated the Televote recently to finally get over the line. In probability, I do feel one or two entries are still due with a higher points ceiling, but as things stand Greece can’t be dismissed entirely and so far things have been falling very favourably for this. I’m sticking with the green I’ve partially lucked onto and there’s a sense of momentum in the air, if that can be maintained and translated to the contest proper Europe wide.
Personal Rating: 16/20
Staging Potential: 18/20
Televote Potential: 20/20
Jury Potential: 15/20
Track Record: 18/20
Overall Rating: 87/100
Early Prediction: Semi One 1st-3rd, 1st-5th in the Final.
Volatility Factor: 3/5
Dealing with the upper parts of the scoreboard where points can be swingy but some level of televote success (top 5) very likely and jury score somewhat capped.