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 ...

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. 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 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 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&nb ...

, 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 Eleni Foureira 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 c ...

" included both Greek and Italian, and in the

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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 countr ...

performed "Comme ci, comme ça" entirely in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

. Additionally, in both the

contest and the

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contest, the songs had some phrases in Spanish.

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 wi ...

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 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 curiously both gave them to Italy. In 2022, 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 transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

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 occupation of the island ...

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

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

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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 brothe ...

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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 20 ...

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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 ...

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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