Akylas Is Coming to Belgrade — and Vienna Is Next

There is something deliciously chaotic about the fact that Eurovision 2026 hasn’t even happened yet and we’re already getting guest performances across national selections like it’s some kind of early access tour nobody officially announced. Because that is exactly what’s happening, and we absolutely love it. Akylas, Greece’s freshly minted representative for Vienna 2026, has been confirmed as a guest performer at Pesma za Evroviziju 2026 — Serbia’s national final — which takes place on 28th February, and if that doesn’t get your Eurovision brain whirring at an unseemly hour of the evening, then frankly we don’t know what will.

In case you’ve somehow missed the noise, Akylas is the act Greece has decided to send to Vienna after a national selection that went about as smoothly and decisively as these things can go — which is to say, both the public and the jury looked at him, looked at each other, and collectively handed him the maximum available points. All of them. From both sides. That doesn’t happen very often, and when it does, it tends to mean something. His song is called «Ferto», and it’s the track he’ll be bringing to the Serbian stage as a guest act before taking it to the Wiener Stadthalle in May.

Greece has placed him in the first half of Semi-Final 1 on 12th May, which is either a blessing or a mild logistical inconvenience depending on how you feel about early draw slots — but given the kind of reception he’s already generating, we suspect the running order is going to be the least of anyone’s concerns.

Serbia Just Made Their Final a Lot More Interesting

Here’s what we particularly enjoy about this booking: Pesma za Evroviziju is already one of the more watchable national selections in the Eurovision calendar — Serbia has a long and occasionally bewildering history of sending things to Eurovision that you cannot stop thinking about for weeks afterwards — and adding Akylas as a guest performer to the 28th February final turns what was already a good evening’s television into something of a pre-Vienna warm-up party. He performs «Ferto» in front of a Serbian audience and a watching Eurovision fandom that is, at this point, very much paying attention, and that kind of exposure before the contest even opens its doors is the sort of thing that quietly builds momentum in ways that are hard to measure but very easy to feel.

It’s also, if we’re being slightly cynical about it — and why wouldn’t we be, it’s more fun — an extremely smart move on the part of whoever is handling Greece’s campaign. Turning up at a rival country’s national final, performing your song to a room full of people who are already in the Eurovision mindset, and leaving before anyone can vote you off? That’s not just a guest slot. That’s a statement.

Vienna Is Getting Closer and the Pieces Are Moving

With Semi-Final 1 on 12th May fast approaching and the broader Eurovision 2026 picture still taking shape, moments like this — a confirmed guest slot, a song already out in the world, a reception that suggests Greece might genuinely be in the conversation this year — are exactly the kind of early signals that the more obsessive corners of the fandom start filing away for future reference. And yes, we are those corners. We’re not ashamed.

Akylas goes to Belgrade on the 28th. Then, if everything goes to plan, he goes to Vienna in May. We’ll be watching both with considerable interest.

Source: Facebook (RTS)