Singing and music talent contests with public voting in Greece: who runs them and how votes count
The clearest named case of singing and music talent contests in Greece with public voting is Sing for Greece 2026, the Greek Eurovision national final, which added online public voting through its official platform. Its public voting also ran by SMS from Greek numbers. Each vote carries a unique identifier whichever channel it comes through, according to the Eurovision Song Contest's voting description. The reports give a cap of ten votes per user for Eurovision, but they name no count method and no closing time for the SMS route.
Rechecked on 21 October 2026.
Sing for Greece is the one named case in the reports
The Greek Eurovision national final is the case the reports describe, and the 2026 edition is the one with online public voting added through the official Sing for Greece platform. Nothing else in the reports is a Greek talent contest run on the same basis.
Semi-finals were held on 11 and 13 February 2026, according to ERT's account of the run-up. That account is the only dated detail the reports give for the Greek national final, so a reader should treat the dates as the dates of that year and nothing more.
A reader looking for other Greek singing contests with public voting will not find them in the reports. The MAD Video Music Awards appear as a music awards with a public vote, which is not the same kind of contest as a national singing final, so the two cases should be read separately.
- Named case: Sing for Greece 2026, the Greek Eurovision national final.
- Semi-final dates: 11 and 13 February 2026.
- Online route: added through the official Sing for Greece platform.
- Other case: the MAD Video Music Awards, a music awards with a public vote.
- Format check: confirm whether a page covers a talent contest or an awards.
Online voting ran on the official Sing for Greece platform
The reports say online voting was available both inside and outside Greece, through the official platform named for Sing for Greece. A reader outside Greece is covered by the online route, according to the same report.
The reports do not say whether a viewer must register on the platform, or what details the platform asks for. This page does not fill that gap with the rules of other platforms, since the Greek route is set by its own organiser.
A reader who wants to vote online should use the official platform that the reports name. Any other site offered for the same purpose should be checked against that name before anything is entered there.
- Platform named: the official Sing for Greece platform.
- Availability: inside and outside Greece.
- Registration: not stated in the reports.
- Fake copies: match the platform's name before use.
- Details asked by the platform: not described in the reports.
SMS voting ran from Greek numbers alongside the online route
ERT's account of Sing for Greece 2026 says public voting ran by SMS from Greek numbers and online. The SMS route therefore depended on Greek numbers, while the online route was open inside and outside Greece.
The reports do not describe the SMS route's opening or closing times. This page leaves those points blank rather than copying a rule from another country's SMS vote, because a rule from elsewhere would describe a different contest.
A reader who wants the SMS steps should look for the broadcaster's own instructions for the year in question, since the reports name the route only as a channel and give no steps for it.
- Channel: SMS from Greek numbers.
- Paired with the online route in the same contest.
- SMS timing: not stated in the reports.
- Broadcaster instructions: the place to find the SMS steps.
- Greek numbers: the route is tied to them.
Each vote is marked with an identifier, whatever its channel
The Eurovision Song Contest's description of its voting system says each vote is marked with a unique identifier, whether it is cast by phone, SMS or online. That is a statement about tagging, and the reports do not say what the tag is used for.
Under that description, the channels share one voting system. The reports give no detail on how the identifier is used in the count, or whether it appears in any published result.
A reader should not take the identifier as a statement about how a fake vote would be treated. The reports describe the tag and nothing beyond it, and this page does not add a detection claim to it.
- Identifier: unique to each vote.
- Channels covered: phone, SMS and online.
- Use of the identifier: not described in the reports.
- Count method: not described in the reports.
- Named publisher: the Eurovision Song Contest.
The MAD awards opened their public vote in April 2026
MAD TV says its public vote for the 2026 awards went live in April 2026, on its own website. That is an opening month, and the reports give no closing month for it.
The MAD Video Music Awards are a music awards with a public vote, which is a different kind of event from a national singing final, and this page does not treat the two as the same kind of contest. The reports give no figure for how many people took part, and no result.
A reader following the awards should check the channel's own announcement for each year, because the reports cover one opening. A later year is a separate event with its own dates, and it should be checked on its own.
- MAD awards 2026: public vote live in April 2026.
- Publisher named: MAD TV.
- Closing month: not given in the reports.
- Public participation: no figure in the reports.
- Format check: a music awards, not a national final.
Rules that apply
Public voting in a Greek singing contest runs through the official platform and, for the Sing for Greece case, through SMS too. The reports describe two routes: an online route that is open inside and outside Greece, and an SMS route that uses Greek numbers. Each vote carries a unique identifier, whatever its channel. Eligibility, the count and the handling of suspicious votes are not described in the reports. The cap of ten votes per user is reported for Eurovision coverage, and the reports do not extend it to other Greek contests, so keep that cap apart from the national final.
What we decline
This page gives no legal opinion on whether a public vote in a Greek singing contest is lawful, because the reports carry no Greek legal rule on it, and the page supplies none from memory. It does not forecast who wins Sing for Greece or the MAD awards, and it does not treat the unique identifier as proof that a vote is genuine. The organisers decide the count, the eligibility and any disqualification, and this page cannot change those decisions. It never explains how to get around a check on a vote. Editorial note: each report cited here was checked for its publisher and date, its wording was reviewed against the sources, and the page was last reviewed on 2026-10-21.
Questions and answers
The named case in the reports is Sing for Greece 2026, the Greek Eurovision national final, which added public voting online through its official platform. The reports also name the MAD Video Music Awards, a music awards with a public vote in 2026. No other Greek contest appears in the reports, so this page lists only those two.
The reports name ERT as the broadcaster behind Sing for Greece, and the online and SMS details come from ERT's account. The MAD Video Music Awards are credited to MAD TV. The Eurovision voting description is credited to the Eurovision Song Contest, and the reports name no separate organiser for the Greek route.
The reports do not describe the count for any Greek contest. They describe a unique identifier that marks each vote, whether by phone, SMS or online, and a cap of ten votes per user reported for Eurovision coverage, but nothing on how the ballots are added up or published.
For Sing for Greece 2026, the reports give semi-final dates of 11 and 13 February 2026 and say the online route was open inside and outside Greece. For the MAD awards, the 2026 public vote went live in April 2026. The reports give no closing dates for either case, so a reader needs the organiser's own schedule.
The reports say the SMS route ran from Greek numbers, which is the only eligibility-type detail they give. Beyond that, the reports state no eligibility rule for any Greek contest, so this page cannot say who is entitled to vote in a Greek contest.
The reports describe one tool: a unique identifier on each vote, whatever its channel. They do not say what that identifier is checked against, and they describe no other step against fake votes. This page does not guess a step, and it does not say that any check catches every fake vote.