Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest


Cyprus has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 36 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.
Cyprus failed to qualify from the semi-final round for six out of eight years, before not returning for the 2014 contest. On 14 July 2014, CyBC officially confirmed Cyprus' return to the contest for 2015, with the country then reaching the final five times in a row in 2015,,, and.

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 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 not participate in the contest and cited public indifference, public opinion regarding the 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis, 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 never failed to qualify, and even made their best result with Eleni Foureira coming second in 2018. As of 2019, Cyprus held the record for the most times competing in the Eurovision Song Contest without a single win with 36 entries into the contest. 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.

Voting

The annual exchange of the maximum 12 points with Greece in the Semi Final and Final has become an amusingly predictable occurrence which is now often met with derision from the audience, but there have been exceptions. The last time Cyprus gave Greece fewer than 12 points was in 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.
Cyprus and Turkey never exchanged votes until 2003, 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 second place, reached by Eleni Foureira at the 2018 Contest.
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 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 talent contest, which often results in somewhat unknown artists representing the country.

Contestants

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

YearCategorySongComposer
lyrics / music 		PerformerFinalPointsHost city
Composer Award"Stronger Every Minute"Mike Konnaris Lisa Andreas5170 Istanbul
Artistic Award"Fuego"Alex Papaconstantinou, Geraldo Sandell,
Viktor Svensson, Anderz Wrethov Didrick		Eleni Foureira2436 Lisbon

Related involvement

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.
YearHead of delegation
-presentEvi Papamichael

Commentators and spokespersons

YearCommentatorRadio commentatorSpokesperson
Fryni PapadopoulouNeophytos TaliotisAnna Partelidou
Fryni PapadopoulouNeophytos TaliotisAnna Partelidou
Fryni PapadopoulouNeophytos TaliotisAnna Partelidou
Pavlos PavlouNeophytos TaliotisAnna Partelidou
Themis ThemistokleousNeophytos TaliotisAnna Partelidou
Neophytos TaliotisPavlos PavlouAnna Partelidou
Fryni PapadopoulouPavlos PavlouAnna Partelidou
Daphne Bokota
Neophytos TaliotisPavlos PavlouAnna Partelidou
Neophytos TaliotisPavlos PavlouAnna Partelidou
Evi PapamichaelPavlos PavlouAnna Partelidou
Evi PapamichaelPavlos PavlouAnna Partelidou
Evi PapamichaelPavlos PavlouAnna Partelidou
Evi PapamichaelPavlos PavlouAnna Partelidou
Neophytos TaliotisPavlos PavlouAndreas Iakovidis
Evi PapamichaelPavlos PavlouMarios Skordis
Evi PapamichaelPavlos PavlouMarios Skordis
Evi PapamichaelPavlos PavlouMarina Maleni
Evi PapamichaelPavlos PavlouMarina Maleni
Evi PapamichaelPavlos PavlouLoukas Hamatsos
Evi Papamichael
Evi PapamichaelPavlos PavlouMelani Steliou
Evi PapamichaelPavlos PavlouLoukas Hamatsos
Evi Papamichaelrowspan="5" Loukas Hamatsos
Evi PapamichaelMelani Steliou-
Evi PapamichaelConstantinos Christoforou-
Vaso KomninouGiannis Haralambous-
Melina KarageorgiouHristina Marouhou-
Melina KarageorgiouNathan MorleySophia Paraskeva
Melina KarageorgiouNathan MorleyChristina Metaxa
Melina Karageorgiourowspan="2" Loukas Hamatsos
Melina KarageorgiouLoukas Hamatsos-
Melina KarageorgiouMelina KarageorgiouLoukas Hamatsos
Melina Karageorgiou
Melina KarageorgiouMelina KarageorgiouLoukas Hamatsos
Melina KarageorgiouMelina KarageorgiouLoukas Hamatsos
Tasos Tryfonos and Christiana ArtemiouTasos Tryfonos and Christiana ArtemiouJohn Karayiannis
Costas Constantinou and Vaso KomninouHovig
Evridiki and Tasos TrifonosHovig

Photogallery