"" ( el, Έλα; ) is a song recorded and released as a single by Greek singer

Andromache In Greek mythology, Andromache (; grc, Ἀνδρομάχη, ) was the wife of Hector, daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled. The name means 'man battler' or ...

. The song represented Cyprus in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2022 The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Turin, Italy, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Måneskin. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and h ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, Italy after being internally selected by

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 ...

, the Cypriot national broadcaster for 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 ...

Background and composition

"" was composed by a mix of Greek, Kosovo-Albanian, Dutch, Swedish and Spanish songwriters, namely

Alex P Alexander "Alex P" Papaconstantinou (Greek: Αλέξανδρος "Άλεξ" Παπακωνσταντίνου; born 29 December 1979 in Brännkyrka, Sweden) is a Greek-Swedish songwriter and music producer. He has worked with a number of artists ...

Arash Arash the Archer ( fa, آرش کمانگیر ''Āraš-e Kamāngīr'') is a heroic archer-figure of Iranian mythology. According to Iranian folklore, the boundary between Iran and Turan was set by an arrow launched by Arash, after he put his own ...

, Eyelar Mirzazadeh, Fatjon Miftaraj, Filloreta Raci, Geraldo Sandell, Giorgos Papadopoulos, Robert Uhlmann, Viktor Svensson and

Yll Limani Yll Limani (; born 24 September 1994) is a Kosovo-Albanian singer and songwriter. Life and career 1994–2020: Early life and career beginnings Yll Limani was born on 24 September 1994 into an Albanian family in the city of Pristina, then ...

. "Ela" was described as an "ethnic- pop" song with "modern European" production incorporating Balkan instrumentation, which includes Greek

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

and Albanian fyell brezi.

Release

The song was first released on

on Cypriot TV program on 9 March 2022. The music video for the song was released on 10 March 2022, while it was released on digital platforms on 11 March 2022.

Eurovision Song Contest

Selection

In September 2021, CEO of Panik Records George Arsenakos claimed that the label had signed an agreement with CyBC to establish a national final in order to select the Cypriot entrant for 2023. In January 2022, it was announced an agreement between the two parties is already in place for the 2022 selection and that the performance of the chosen act will be staged by Marvin Dietmann and Dan Shipton, both having previous experience at Eurovision. Andromachi Dimitropoulou, former contestant of ''

The Voice of Greece ''The Voice of Greece'' is a Greek television talent show created by John de Mol and based on the concept ''The Voice of Holland''. It is part of an international series. It began airing on ANT1 on January 10, 2014, and the final of second seaso ...

'', was rumoured to be the selected representative for Cyprus. The Cypriot radio programme ''Good Morning Show'' reported that the name of their national representative ended with ''-machi'', and in addition to this, Dimitropoulou is signed with Panik Records. Dimitropoulou was officially announced as the Cypriot entrant with the song "" on 9 March 2022 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 .

At Eurovision

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, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 25 January 2022, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Cyprus was placed into the second semi-final, held on 12 May 2022, and performed in the first half of the show, 9th out of the 18 countries performing.

Charts

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2022 2022 songs 2022 singles Eurovision songs of Cyprus Eurovision songs of 2022 Songs written by Alex P Song recordings produced by Alex P Songs written by Arash (singer) Songs written by Geraldo Sandell Songs written by Fifi (singer) Songs written by Robert Uhlmann (composer)