Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

has participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

38 times since making its debut in

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

. 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 Eleni Foureira ( el, Ελένη Φουρέιρα; born Entela Fureraj; 7 March 1987) is a naturalised Greek, Albanian singer and dancer. She began her music career in 2007 as a member of the Greek girl group Mystique, pursuing a solo career after ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

. Between and , Cyprus failed to qualify from the semi-final round six times, before withdrawing in . On 14 July 2014,

CyBC Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation ( gr, Ραδιοφωνικό Ίδρυμα Κύπρου , tr, Kıbrıs Radyo Yayın Kurumu), or CyBC (ΡΙΚ, KRYK), is Cyprus' public broadcasting service. It transmits island-wide on four radio and two domestic ...

officially confirmed Cyprus' return to the contest for , with the country then qualifying for the final every year since, a streak that lasted until their non-qualification in .

History

Since its first entry, Cyprus has participated every year except , and . 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 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, and related budget restrictions as factors for not taking part. 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. Since their return in 2015 the country has only failed to qualify once, and even made their best result with

coming second in 2018. As of 2021, Cyprus holds the record for the most times competing in the Eurovision Song Contest without a single win with 37 entries into the contest. Most of the Cypriot entries have been sung in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

or English; the exceptions are in

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, in which the song "

Nomiza Cyprus competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000, held on 13 May 2000 at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) organised a public selection process to determine its entry for the contest. 11 songs co ...

" included both Greek and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

, and in the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

contest, in which

Evridiki Evridiki Theokleous ( el, Ευρυδίκη Θεοκλέους, ; born 25 February 1968), known professionally as simply Evridiki, is a Greek-Cypriot rock, pop, and electropop singer. She is best known in Europe for representing her home count ...

performed "Comme ci, comme ça" entirely in French. Additionally, in both the

contest and the

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contest, the songs had some phrases in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Voting

The annual exchange of the maximum 12 points with

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

in the Semi Final and Final has become an amusingly predictable occurrence which is now often met with derision from the audience. In the 31 instances (1981–2022) of Cyprus being able to vote for Greece in a final they have voted Greece as having the best song on 26 of them (the exceptions being 1981, 1985, 1990, 1991 and 2015). Since the advent of

televoting Televoting, telephone voting or phone voting is a method of decision making and opinion polling conducted by telephone. Televoting can also extend to voting by SMS text message via a mobile cell phone. Broadcast contest televoting Televoting ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, 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 curiously both gave them to Italy. In

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, the Cypriot televote gave 12 points to Ukraine. Cyprus and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

never exchanged votes until 2003, a taboo attributed to the ongoing

Cyprus dispute The Cyprus problem, also known as the Cyprus dispute, Cyprus issue, Cyprus question or Cyprus conflict, is an ongoing dispute between Greek Cypriots in the south and Turkish Cypriots in the north. Initially, with the Modern history of Cyprus#In ...

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

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

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Related involvement

Conductors

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.

Commentators and spokespersons

Stage directors

Costume designers

Photogallery

File:Eurovision 1995.jpg, Alex Panayi in

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Lisa Andreas Lisa Andreas (born Lisa Large; 22 December 1987) is an English singer. She represented Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 and came fifth with her performance of "Stronger Every Minute". At the age of 16, Andreas was the youngest singer t ...

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Christina Metaxa Christina Metaxa (Greek: Χριστίνα Μεταξά; born 4 April 1992) is a Greek-Cypriot singer and songwriter. Her elder brother, Nikolas Metaxas, is also a singer and won second place in the Greek version of ''The X Factor''. Her brother ...

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Jon Lilygreen Cyprus participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Life Looks Better in Spring" written by Nasos Lambrianides and Melis Konstantinou. The song was performed by Jon Lilygreen and the Islanders. The Cypriot broadcaster Cyprus ...

and the Islanders in

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Despina Olympiou Despina Olympiou (Greek: Δέσποινα Ολυμπίου, ; born 17 October 1975), also known as Dena Olympiou, is a Greek-Cypriot singer, famous in her homeland as well as in Greece. She represented Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 ...

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Giannis Karagiannis Giannis Karagiannis ( gr, Γιάννης Καραγιάννης) (born 25 July 1994), sometimes credited as John Karayiannis, is a Cyprus, Cypriot singer and songwriter who Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, represented Cyprus in the Eurov ...

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Elena Tsagrinou Elena Tsagrinou ( el, Έλενα Τσαγκρινού; born November 16, 1994) is a Greek singer. Tsagrinou began her career as the lead singer of the Greek band OtherView, until beginning a solo career in 2018. She represented Cyprus in the Eu ...

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Notes

References

External links

National Final Cyprus
''eurovisioncovers.co.uk''
Music.net.cy
- Cyprus National Finals 2010 (in Greek) {{Authority control Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest