Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest

Updated on Jan 18, 2024

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Member station CyBC First appearance 1981 Worst result Last: 1986		Appearances 33 (27 finals) Best result 5th: 1982, 1997, 2004

National selection events National Final 1982 1984 1990–2000 2004–2006 2008–2012 2015 Internal Selection 1981 1983 1985–1987 1989 2002–2003 2007 2013 2016–present

Cyprus has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 33 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 three fifth-place finishes, in 1982 with Anna Vissi, 1997 with Hara & Andreas Constantinou and 2004 with Lisa Andreas.

Since 2006, Cyprus failed to qualify from the semi-final round for six out of eight years (2006–2013), before withdrawing from the 2014 contest. On 14 July 2014, Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) officially confirmed their return to the contest in 2015.

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

Table key

NOTES:

a. ^ In 2012, Cyprus and Ukraine were both awarded with 65 points each in the final, however, according to tie-break procedures, Ukraine finished 15th overall and Cyprus 16th because Ukraine received points from a greater amount of countries between the two. b. If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition, back in 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi finals the following year. If, for example, Germany and France placed inside the top ten with Spain and the United Kingdom finishing after 15th place, the countries who placed 11th and 12th were advanced to the following year's grand final along with the rest of the top ten countries.