Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest

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 entered (but not selected) in the 1984 national 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 withdraw from the contest and cited public indifference and the economic crisis for not taking part.

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.

Withdrawal

On 3 October 2013, the Cypriot broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) withdrew from the 2014 contest. Reasons that were cited are public opinion regarding the 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis and budget restrictions as factors that influenced this decision.

Voting

Cyprus is famous for always exchanging 12 points with Greece in the Semi Final and Final, though there have been exceptions. The last time Cyprus gave Greece less than 12 points was in 2015 (8 points). Since the advent of televoting in 1998, the two countries have consistently given each other the maximum 12 points until the 2015 Contest, where neither country gave their 12 to the other, but instead both gave them to Italy.

Cyprus and Turkey never voted for each other until 2004, a taboo attributed to the ongoing Cyprus dispute.

Popularity of the Contest

Since its first entry in 1981, Cyprus has had a mixture of good and bad results. The best result achieved so far is a fifth place, reached by Anna Vissi in 1982, Hara and Andreas Constantinou in 1997 and Lisa Andreas in 2004. The lowest result was a last place in 1986, with the song "Tora Zo" sung by Elpida.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Cyprus had managed to reach the top 10 a number of times, something which made the Contest become popular in the Cypriot public. Since the last best result of the country in 2004, Cyprus' performance has dropped notably. From 2006 to 2009 and again in 2011 & 2013, the country didn't manage 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 contest, which often results in young and somewhat unknown artists representing the country.

2015 return

In May 2014, the ethnic radio station London Greek Radio announced that Cyprus were planning a return to the contest after a one-year break. A few weeks later Eurovision website Wiwibloggs announced that Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) had confirmed their return. However this confirmation was later dismissed following a further published report which stated that CyBC were still discussing whether to return, with an official decision expected to be reached sometime in July 2014.

On 14 July 2014, CyBC officially confirmed their return to the contest in 2015. Cyprus hosted the Eurovision Song Project, which included 2 semi-finals, 1 second chance round and a final similar to that of Sweden's Melodifestivalen.

Contestants

Voting history

As of 2016, Cyprus' voting history is as follows:

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Composer Award

Commentators and spokespersons