Following a promotional tour of many European cities, "Secret Combination" came first in the first of the Eurovision semi-finals at Belgrade in May, and was seen as a possible competition winner.

[1] In Greece's 29th Eurovision appearance on 24 May, "Secret Combination" initially led the voting with full marks from six countries.

[4] Greece's least successful result was in 1998 when it placed twentieth with the song "Mia krifi evaisthisia" by Thalassa, receiving only twelve points in total, all from Cyprus.

The competition took place on 27 February 2008 at the Athinon Arena Music Hall in Athens (22:00–00:30 CET), hosted by actresses and comedy singers Betty and Mathilde Maggira.

[12] The national final was watched by an estimated 1.9 million viewers in Greece, topping the programs aired on 27 February 2008 by 45.9% according to AGB Hellas.

[14][15] The three competing artists had until 25 January 2008 to submit their songs, which were presented on 6 February 2008 during a press conference held at the Hilton Hotel in Athens.

[18][19] Chrispa's record label, Minos EMI, chose a song composed by Marios Psimopoulos with lyrics by Antonis Pappas.

Antonis Pappas had previously written lyrics for Elina Konstantopoulou's "Pia prosefhi" in 1995 and Antique's "Die for You" in 2001 which both represented Greece.

[22] Kostas Martakis and his record label, Sony BMG Greece, chose "Always and Forever", a song composed by Dimitris Kontopoulos with lyrics by Vicky Gerothodorou.

[24][26] Kalomira, and her record company Heaven Music, had several submissions,[27] from which they chose "Secret Combination", an upbeat R&B song composed by Konstantinos Pantzis with lyrics by Poseidonas Giannopoulos.

[41] Although Greece had been granted a spot in the 2008 final because of its seventh-place finish at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, it had to compete in a semi-final for the first time since 2004 because of new rules put into effect by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

Greece and Cyprus had often been accused of favoring each other,[44] with each awarding the other the maximum number of points (twelve) at the previous contest.

[59] However, she reported later that she had returned to the United States because she felt mistreated by her record label and was not paid for several arrangements she had made with Heaven during her stay in Belgrade and had to pay for many things herself.

[60] In an interview with Downtown Magazine, Kalomira's father stated that she was treated "like dirt" by Heaven Music and that she may or may not continue her singing career, but that it was up to her.

[61] In response, Makis Pounetzis, the new CEO of Heaven Music, claimed that he was "surprised" by Kalomira's remarks and couldn't offer an explanation, though he did say that her contract would be honored should she choose to go back and sing again.

[59] Kalomira returned to Greece in January 2009, and in an interview with Eleni Menegaki, she said that her Eurovision participation was the biggest thing that she has done in her career, and that it was also one of the most personal events in her life that will always be remembered with good memories.

[62] In the same interview, host Eleni Menegaki stated that many, including herself, viewed Eurovision as a defining point in Kalomira's career to date: her mature professional performance distanced her from the innocent little girl image associated with her participation in Fame Story.