Cyprus_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest_1989

Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest

Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest

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Cyprus has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 39 times since making its debut in 1981. Cyprus' first entry was the group Island, who finished sixth. The country's best result in the contest is a second-place finish with Eleni Foureira in 2018.

For the most recent participation, see Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. For the upcoming participation, see Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024.
Quick Facts Participating broadcaster, Participation summary ...

Between 2006 and 2013, Cyprus failed to qualify from the semi-final round six times, before withdrawing in 2014. On 14 July 2014, CyBC officially confirmed Cyprus' return to the contest for 2015, with the country then qualifying for the final every year since, a streak that lasted until its non-qualification in 2022. Cyprus once again returned to the final in 2023.

History

Since its first entry, Cyprus has participated every year except 1988, 2001 and 2014. In 1988, Cyprus withdrew its entry after broadcaster CyBC determined that the intended entry was ineligible; the song had been presented to jurors (but not selected) in the 1984 internal selection process, which was a violation of the Cypriot selection rules. In 2001, the country did not qualify for the contest due to insufficiently high average scores in previous contests, according to the qualification process at the time. In 2014, the broadcaster decided to not participate in the contest and cited public indifference, public opinion regarding the 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis, and related budget restrictions as factors for not taking part.[1] On 14 July 2014, CyBC officially confirmed their return to the contest in 2015.[2][3] Cyprus hosted the Eurovision Song Project, which included 2 semi-finals, 1 second chance round and a final.[4][5]

Since its return in 2015, Cyprus has only failed to qualify once, and even reached its best result with Eleni Foureira coming second in 2018. Cyprus holds the record for the most times competing in the Eurovision Song Contest without a single win to date. Most of the Cypriot entries have been sung in Greek or English; the exceptions are in 2000, in which the song "Nomiza" included both Greek and Italian, and in the 2007 contest, in which Evridiki performed "Comme ci, comme ça" entirely in French. Additionally, in both the 2018 contest and the 2021 contest, the songs had some phrases in Spanish.

Voting

Cyprus' exchange of the maximum 12 points with Greece has occurred regularly in the contest, which is often met with derision from the audience.[6] In the 31 instances (1981–2022) of Cyprus being able to vote for Greece in a final, it has voted Greece as having the best song on 26 of them (the exceptions being 1981, 1985, 1990, 1991 and 2015 and 2023). Since the introduction of televoting in 1998, the two countries have consistently given each other the maximum 12 points until 2015, when neither country gave their 12 points to the other, but both gave their maximum points to Italy.

Cyprus and Turkey never exchanged votes until 2003, a taboo attributed to the Cyprus dispute.

Popularity of the contest

Since its first entry in 1981, Cyprus has had a mixture of varied results. The best result achieved so far is a second place, reached by Eleni Foureira at the 2018 contest.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Cyprus managed to reach the top 10 a number of times, something which made the Contest popular with the Cypriot public. Since 2004, Cyprus' performance has dropped notably. From 2006 to 2009 and again in 2011 and 2013, the country failed to reach the final.

At the same time when Cyprus' performance in the contest dropped vertically, Greece's performance improved very fast by one win and seven top ten results in one decade. This created a shift of interest, with the Cypriot public being more interested in the success of the Greek entry. This is probably because Greece, since 2004, seems to send very popular singers that have a well established fan-club in Cyprus, while Cyprus usually elects their contestants through an open talent contest, which often results in somewhat unknown artists representing the country.

Participation overview

Table key
2 Second place
◁ Last place
X Entry selected but did not compete
† Upcoming event
More information Year, Entrant ...

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Further information: Marcel Bezençon Awards
More information Year, Category ...

Conductors

More information Year, Conductor ...

Heads of delegation

The public broadcaster of each participating country in the Eurovision Song Contest assigns a head of delegation as the EBU's contact person and the leader of their delegation at the event. The delegation, whose size can greatly vary, includes a head of press, the contestants, songwriters, composers and backing vocalists, among others.[12]

More information Year, Head of delegation ...

Commentators and spokespersons

More information Year, Commentator ...
More information Year, Stage director ...

Photogallery

See also

Notes

  1. According to the then-Eurovision rules, the top ten non-Big Four countries from the previous year along with the Big Four automatically qualified for the Grand Final without having to compete in semi-finals. For example, if Germany and France placed inside the top ten, the 11th and 12th spots were advanced to next year's Grand Final along with all countries ranked in the top ten.
  2. The 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  3. Voted by previous winners.
  4. All conductors are of Greek-Cypriot nationality unless otherwise noted.
  5. Host conductor; according to performer Andy Paul, he originally intended to have co-arranger Les Vandyke conduct the entry, only for CyBC to refuse to pay his fee.
  6. Also conducted the Greek entry.
  7. Host conductor
  8. Prior to "Thimame"'s disqualification, the intention was to have Themis conduct and, additionally, play the guitar solo.
  9. Host conductor; several television commentators erroneously stated that the song's composer and co-arranger, John Vickers, was the conductor. He was one of the backing musicians at the Eurovision final.

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