Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest

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.

Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest
Participating broadcaster	Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC)
Participation summary
Appearances	39 (32 finals)
First appearance	1981
Highest placement	2nd: 2018
External links
Cyprus's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023

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). 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

Year	Entrant	Song	Language	Final	Points	Semi	Points
1981	Island	"Monika" (Μόνικα)	Greek	6	69	No semi-finals
1982	Anna Vissi	"Mono i agapi" (Μόνο η αγάπη)	Greek	5	85
1983	Stavros and Constantina	"I agapi akoma zi" (Η αγάπη ακόμα ζει)	Greek	16	26
1984	Andy Paul	"Anna Mari-Elena" (Άννα Μαρί-Έλενα)	Greek	15	31
1985	Lia Vissi	"To katalava arga" (Το κατάλαβα αργά)	Greek	16	15
1986	Elpida	"Tora zo" (Τώρα ζω)	Greek	20 ◁	4
1987	Alexia	"Aspro mavro" (Άσπρο μαύρο)	Greek	7	80
1988	Yiannis Dimitrou	"Thimame" (Θυμάμαι)	Greek	Disqualified X
1989	Fanny Polymeri and Yiannis Savvidakis	"Apopse as vrethoume" (Απόψε ας βρεθούμε)	Greek	11	51
1990	Anastasiou	"Milas poli" (Μιλάς πολύ)	Greek	14	36
1991	Elena Patroklou	"S.O.S."	Greek	9	60
1992	Evridiki	"Teriazoume" (Ταιριάζουμε)	Greek	11	57
1993	Zymboulakis and Van Beke	"Mi stamatas" (Μη σταματάς)	Greek	19	17	Kvalifikacija za Millstreet
1994	Evridiki	"Ime anthropos ki ego" (Είμαι άνθρωπος κι εγώ)	Greek	11	51	No semi-finals
1995	Alexandros Panayi	"Sti fotia" (Στη φωτιά)	Greek	9	79
1996	Constantinos	"Mono gia mas" (Μόνο για μας)	Greek	9	72	15	42
1997	Hara and Andreas Konstantinou	"Mana mou" (Μάνα μου)	Greek	5	98	No semi-finals
1998	Michael Hajiyanni	"Genesis" (Γένεσις)	Greek	11	37
1999	Marlain	"Tha'ne erotas" (Θα'ναι έρωτας)	Greek	22	2
2000	Voice	"Nomiza" (Νόμιζα)	Greek, Italian	21	8
2002	One	"Gimme"	English	6	85
2003	Stelios Constantas	"Feeling Alive"	English	20	15
2004	Lisa Andreas	"Stronger Every Minute"	English	5	170	5	149
2005	Constantinos Christoforou	"Ela Ela"	English	18	46	Top 12 in 2004 final^[a]
2006	Annet Artani	"Why Angels Cry"	English	Failed to qualify		15	57
2007	Evridiki	"Comme ci, comme ça"	French			15	65
2008	Evdokia Kadi	"Femme Fatale"	Greek			15	36
2009	Christina Metaxa	"Firefly"	English			14	32
2010	Jon Lilygreen and the Islanders	"Life Looks Better in Spring"	English	21	27	10	67
2011	Christos Mylordos	"San aggelos s'agapisa" (Σαν άγγελος σ'αγάπησα)	Greek	Failed to qualify		18	16
2012	Ivi Adamou	"La La Love"	English	16	65	7	91
2013	Despina Olympiou	"An me thimasai" (Aν με θυμάσαι)	Greek	Failed to qualify		15	11
2015	John Karayiannis	"One Thing I Should Have Done"	English	22	11	6	87
2016	Minus One	"Alter Ego"	English	21	96	8	164
2017	Hovig	"Gravity"	English	21	68	5	164
2018	Eleni Foureira	"Fuego"	English^[b]	2	436	2	262
2019	Tamta	"Replay"	English	13	109	9	149
2020	Sandro	"Running"	English	Contest cancelled^[c] X
2021	Elena Tsagrinou	"El Diablo"	English^[d]	16	94	6	170
2022	Andromache	"Ela" (Έλα)	English, Greek	Failed to qualify		12	63
2023	Andrew Lambrou	"Break a Broken Heart"	English	12	126	7	94
2024	Silia Kapsis^[7]	TBA †		Upcoming †

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Further information: Marcel Bezençon Awards

Year	Category	Song	Composer(s) lyrics (l) / music (m)	Performer	Final	Points	Host city	Ref.
2004	Composer Award	"Stronger Every Minute"	Mike Konnaris (m & l)	Lisa Andreas	5	170	Istanbul	^[8]
2018	Artistic Award^[e]	"Fuego"	Alex Papaconstantinou, Geraldo Sandell, Viktor Svensson, Anderz Wrethov Didrick	Eleni Foureira	2	436	Lisbon	^[9]

Related involvement

Conductors

Year	Conductor^[f]	Notes	Ref.
1981	Michael Rozakis		^[10]
1982	Martyn Ford
1983	Michael Rozakis
1984	Pierre Cao	^[g]
1985	Charis Andreadis	^[h]
1986	Martyn Ford
1987	Jo Carlier	^[i]
1988	John Themis	^[j]
1989	Charis Andreadis
1990	Stanko Selak	^[k]	^[11]
1991	Alexander Kirov Zografov
1992	George Theophanous
1993
1994
1995
1996	Stavros Lantsias
1997
1998	Costas Cacogiannis

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]

Year	Head of delegation	Ref.
1999	Marios Skordis	^[13]
2003	Marios Skordis	^[14]
2007–present	Evi Papamichael	^[15]^[16]^[17]^[18]

Commentators and spokespersons

Year	Commentator	Radio commentator	Spokesperson	Ref.
1974	Unknown		Did not participate	^[19]
1975 – 1980	No broadcast
1981	Fryni Papadopoulou	Neophytos Taliotis	Anna Partelidou
1982
1983
1984	Pavlos Pavlou
1985	Themis Themistokleous
1986	Neophytos Taliotis	Pavlos Pavlou
1987	Fryni Papadopoulou
1988	Daphne Bokota (for ERT and RIK)	No radio broadcast	Did not participate
1989	Neophytos Taliotis	Pavlos Pavlou	Anna Partelidou
1990
1991	Evi Papamichael^[18]
1992
1993
1994
1995			Andreas Iakovidis
1996			Marios Skordis
1997
1998			Marina Maleni
1999
2000			Loukas Hamatsos
2001		No radio broadcast	Did not participate
2002		Pavlos Pavlou	Melani Steliou
2003			Loukas Hamatsos
2004		No radio broadcast
2005			Melani Steliou
2006			Constantinos Christoforou
2007	Vaso Komninou		Giannis Haralambous
2008	Melina Karageorgiou		Hristina Marouhou
2009		Nathan Morley	Sophia Paraskeva
2010			Christina Metaxa
2011		No radio broadcast	Loukas Hamatsos
2012
2013		Melina Karageorgiou
2014		No radio broadcast	Did not participate
2015		Melina Karageorgiou	Loukas Hamatsos
2016
2017	Tasos Tryfonos and Christiana Artemiou	Tasos Tryfonos and Christiana Artemiou	John Karayiannis
2018	Costas Constantinou and Vaso Komninou	No radio broadcast	Hovig	^[20]^[21]
2019	Evridiki and Tasos Trifonos			^[22]^[23]
2021	Louis Patsalides		Loukas Hamatsos	^[24]
2022	Melina Karageorgiou and Alexandros Taramountas			^[25]
2023				^[26]

Stage directors Year Stage director Ref. 2005 Fotis Nikolaou ^[27] 2008 Fotis Nikolaou ^[28] 2009 Fotis Nikolaou ^[29] 2011 Fotis Nikolaou ^[30] 2012 Apollon Papatheoharis ^[31] 2013 Maria Liraraki ^[32] 2016 Sacha Jean-Baptiste ^[33] 2017 Charis Savva ^[34] 2018 Sacha Jean-Baptiste ^[35] 2019 Sacha Jean-Baptiste ^[36] 2020 Marvin Dietmann ^[37] 2021 Marvin Dietmann ^[38] 2022 Marvin Dietmann and Dan Shipton ^[39] 2023 Marvin Dietmann and Ross Nicholson ^[40] Costume designers Year Costume designers Ref. 2005 Doukas Hatzidoukas ^[41] 2006 Marios Savvidis ^[42] 2013 Dionisis Kolpodinos ^[43] 2016 Andreas Zannetidis ^[44] 2018 Vrettos Vrettakos ^[45] 2019 Alexandre Katsaiti ^[46] 2021 Celia Kritharioti ^[47] 2022 Stelios Koudounaris ^[48]

Photogallery

•  

  Alex Panayi in Dublin (1995)

•  

  Lisa Andreas in Istanbul (2004)

•  

  Evridiki in Helsinki (2007)

•  

  Evdokia Kadí in Belgrade (2008)

•  

  Christina Metaxa in Moscow (2009)

•  

  Jon Lilygreen and the Islanders in Oslo (2010)

•  

  Despina Olympiou in Malmö (2013)

•  

  Giannis Karagiannis in Vienna (2015)

•  

  Minus One in Stockholm (2016)

•  

  Hovig in Kyiv (2017)

•  

  Eleni Foureira in Lisbon (2018)

•  

  Tamta in Tel Aviv (2019)

•  

  Elena Tsagrinou in Rotterdam (2021)

•  

  Andromache in Turin (2022)

•  

  Andrew Lambrou in Liverpool (2023)

See also

• Cyprus in the Eurovision Young Musicians
• Cyprus in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

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. Although the lyrics are in English, the Spanish title "Fuego" is repeated throughout the song.
3. The 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
4. Contains repeated words in Spanish
5. Voted by previous winners.
6. All conductors are of Greek-Cypriot nationality unless otherwise noted.
7. 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.
8. Also conducted the Greek entry.
9. Host conductor
10. Prior to "Thimame"'s disqualification, the intention was to have Themis conduct and, additionally, play the guitar solo.
11. 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.

References

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External links

• National Final Cyprus
• Points to and from Cyprus eurovisioncovers.co.uk
• - Cyprus National Finals 2010 (in Greek)