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 ...

participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2021 The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's win at the with the song "Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands was set to host the , ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, the Netherlands. The Cypriot broadcaster

Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation 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 ...

(CyBC) internally selected

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 ...

as its representative with the song "". "" was written and composed by Thomas Stengaard,

Laurell Barker Laurell Barker (born April 20, 1979), also known mononymously as Laurell, is a Canadian singer and songwriter currently residing in Malmö, Sweden. She has co-written songs with numerous artists, including Twice, Eleni Foureira and Oh My Girl. S ...

, Oxa, and Jimmy Thörnfeldt. Cyprus performed 8th in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, held on 18 May 2021, and placed 6th, receiving 170 points. The entry qualified for the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

held four days later, where the nation placed 16th with 94 points.

Background

Prior to the 2021 contest, Cyprus had 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 ...

thirty-six times since the island country made its debut in the 1981 contest. Its best placing was at the where

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 ...

placed second with "". Before that, Cyprus's best result was fifth, which it achieved three times: in the 1982 competition with the song "" performed by

Anna Vissi Anna Vissi ( el, Άννα Βίσση, , ; born 20 December 1957), is a Greek Cypriot singer and songwriter. She studied music at conservatories and performed locally before moving to the professional scene in Athens, in 1973, where she signed ...

, in the 1997 edition with "" performed by Hara and Andreas Constantinou, and the 2004 contest with "

Stronger Every Minute Cyprus participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song "Stronger Every Minute" performed by Lisa Andreas. The song was written by Mike Connaris, who had twice written a runner up in Eurovision selection process for the United Kingd ...

" performed by

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 ...

. Cyprus' least successful result was in the 1986 contest when it placed last with the song "" by Elpida, receiving only four points in total. However, its worst finish in terms of points received was when it placed second to last in the 1999 contest with "" by

Marlain Angelidou Marlain Angelides (Greek: Μαρλέν Αγγελίδου) is a Greek-Cypriot singer and actress. She was a member of the Greek girl group Hi-5, and represented Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 with " Tha 'Ne Erotas". Angelidou, her ...

, receiving only two points. After returning to the contest in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

following their one-year absence from the 2014 edition due to 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 the broadcaster's budget restrictions, Cyprus has qualified for the final of all the contests in which it has participated. The Cypriot national broadcaster, CyBC, broadcasts the contest within Cyprus and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Cyprus has used various methods to select its entry in the past, such as internal selections and televised national finals to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. In 2015, the broadcaster organised the national final ''Eurovision Song Project'', which featured 54 songs competing in a nine-week-long process resulting in the selection of the Cypriot entry through the combination of public

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 ...

and the votes from an expert jury. Since 2016, however, the broadcaster has opted to select the entry internally without input from the public.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 25 November 2020, CyBC announced that they had internally selected Greek singer

to represent Cyprus in Rotterdam with the song "". Tsagrinou previously participated in the second season of where she progressed to the semi-final. Signed to Panik Records, she was a former member of the group Otherview. "" was written by Jimmy "Joker" Thörnfeldt,

, Oxa, and Thomas Stengaard. Barker and Stengaard have written several Eurovision entries for various countries with the latter having written the Danish

Eurovision Song Contest 2013 The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EB ...

winning song "

Only Teardrops "Only Teardrops" is a song recorded by Danish singer Emmelie de Forest. The song was written by Lise Cabble, Julia Fabrin Jakobsen and Thomas Stengaard, and it was produced by Frederik Thaae. It is best known as Denmark's winning entry to th ...

". On 25 January 2021, Tsagrinou announced on her

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

account that the song would be released exactly one month later, on 24 February 2021. A preview of "" was presented to the public on 24 February 2021 during the

RIK 1 RIK 1 (Greek language, Greek: ΡΙΚ 1) is a Cyprus, Cypriot television channel owned and operated by Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation. It was launched in 1957. External links

* Television channels in Cyprus Television channels and stations ...

programme ''Happy Hour'', hosted by Andreas Giortsios. The official preview video for the song, directed by George Benioudakis was also available on the Panik Records mobile app and website. The music video was hosted on the website until 27 February; on 28 February, the song and full length music video was officially released to the public.

Reception

Upon release, the song was controversial within Cyprus, with the

Church of Cyprus The Church of Cyprus ( el, Ἐκκλησία τῆς Κύπρου, translit=Ekklisia tis Kyprou; tr, Kıbrıs Kilisesi) is one of the autocephalous Greek Orthodox churches that together with other Eastern Orthodox churches form the communio ...

calling for the withdrawal of song. The church stated that the song made an international mockery of country's moral foundations by advocating "our surrender to the devil and promoting his worship". They felt that the song was offensive, disrespectful and unrepresentative, and demanded that the state broadcaster CyBC withdraw Cyprus' Eurovision entry. In February 2021, Orthodox Christians in Cyprus launched an online petition to ask the withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest. This was followed by a protest held in March outside of CyBC to demand the song's withdrawal, and a petition signed by just over 20,000 people on

Avaaz Avaaz is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization launched in January 2007 that promotes global activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, animal rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict. In 2012, ''The Guardian'' referred to Avaaz as ...

to urge for the cancellation of the country's Eurovision participation. The government publicly rejected the reactions from religious and conservative groups, claiming it respects both spiritual rights but also the freedom of artistic expression.

At Eurovision

ESC 2021 Rotterdam 1st Semi Jury Show Cyprus

The

took place at

Rotterdam Ahoy Rotterdam Ahoy (formerly known as Ahoy Rotterdam or simply as Ahoy) is a convention centre and multi-purpose indoor arena located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Opened originally in 1950, the current complex consists of three main venues: a fairs an ...

, the Netherlands, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 18 and 20 May, and the final on 22 May 2021. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the " Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests as determined by the contest's televoting partner Digame. The semi-final allocation draw held for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 on 28 January 2020 was used for the 2021 contest; Cyprus was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 18 May 2021, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show. Once all the competing songs for the 2021 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Cyprus was set to perform in position 8, following the entry from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and preceding the entry from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Louis Patsalides served as the commentator for the broadcasts of the contest within Cyprus.

Performances

Marvin Dietmann was the artistic director for the entry, responsible for the country's stage performance. Technical rehearsals for the performance took place the week prior to the contest, on 9 and 12 May 2021. The first semi-final was held on 18 May and Cyprus was announced as one of the ten countries to have qualified for the final. It was later revealed that the entry placed sixth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 170 points. Soon after, the EBU posted the running order for the final, placing Cyprus in the first position, preceding . At the close of voting for the final, held on 22 May, "El Diablo" placed 16th in the field of 26, receiving 94 points.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. The judges assessed each entry based on the performances during the second Dress Rehearsal of each show, which took place the night before each live show, against a set of criteria including: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form. Cyprus's jury consisted of Andreas, Marilena Charalambidou, Christiana Mitella, Alexandros Taramountas and . Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Cyprus in the first semi-final, as well as by the country in the final. In the first semi-final, Cyprus placed 6th with a total of 170 points, thus qualifying for the final. The performance received 78 televoting points, which included the maximum 12 awarded by

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. The jury points added to 92, including 12 from

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. In the final, Cyprus placed 16th with 94 points, with two sets of 12 points from

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 ...

(jury and televote) and one set from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

's televote. Over the course of the contest, Cyprus awarded its 12 points in the first semi-final to

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

(televote) and

(jury), while in the final, both sets were awarded to Greece. Loukas Hamatsos served as Cyprus's spokesperson for the voting portion of the final, announcing the country's jury vote.

Points awarded to Cyprus

Points awarded by Cyprus

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Cypriot jury: * Andreas * Marilena Charalambidou * Christiana Mitella * Alexandros Taramountas *

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2021

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

Eurovision 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 ...