Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest

Cyprus
Member station	CyBC
Appearances
Appearances	29
First appearance	1981
Best result	5th: 1982, 1997, 2004
Worst result	Last: 1986
External links
CyBC page
Cyprus's page at Eurovision.tv

Lisa Andreas at Istanbul (2004)

Constantinos Christoforou at Kiev (2005)

Evridiki at Helsinki (2007)

Evdokia Kadí at Belgrade (2008)

Jon Lilygreen & The Islanders at Oslo (2010)

Cyprus made its debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981. Cyprus' best result, fifth place, has been achieved on three occasions: in 1982 with Anna Vissi, 1997 with Hara & Andreas Constantinou, and 2004 with Lisa Andreas.

History of Cyprus at the Eurovision Song Contest

Since its first entry, Cyprus has participated every year except 1988 and 2001. In 1988, Cyprus withdrew its entry after broadcaster CyBC determined that the intended entry was ineligible; the song had been entered (but not selected) 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.

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

Cyprus is famous for always exchanging 12 points with Greece in the Semi Final and Final, though there have been exceptions. The last time Cyprus gave Greece less than 12 points was in 1996 (10 points), while the last time Greece gave Cyprus less than 12 points was in 1995 (8 points). Since the advent of televoting in 1998, the two countries have consistently given each other the maximum 12 points.

Cyprus and Turkey, another participant, never voted for each other until 2003, a taboo attributed to the ongoing Cyprus dispute. Turkey invaded in response to a Greek backed coup and occupied northern Cyprus in 1974, and still refuses to recognize the Republic of Cyprus, a full EU and EBU member.

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 fifth place, reached by Anna Vissi in 1982, Hara and Andreas Constantinou in 1997 and Lisa Andreas in 2004. The lowest result was a last place in 1986, with the song "Tora Zo" sung by Elpida.

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 the last best result of the country in 2004, Cyprus's performance has dropped notably. From 2006 to 2009 and again in 2011, the country didn't manage to reach the final.

At the same time when Cyprus's 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 contest, which often results in young and somewhat unknown artists representing the country.

Contestants

Year	Artist	Title	Final	Points	Semi	Points
1981	Island	"Monika" ("Μόνικα")	6	69
1982	Anna Vissi	"Mono I Agapi" ("Μόνο η αγάπη")	5	85
1983	Stavros & Constantina	"I Agapi Akoma Zi" ("Η αγάπη ακόμα ζει")	16	26
1984	Andy Paul	"Anna Maria Lena" ("Άννα Μαρία Λένα")	15	31
1985	Lia Vissi	"To Katalava Arga" ("Το κατάλαβα αργά")	16	15
1986	Elpida	"Tora Zo" ("Τώρα ζω")	20	4
1987	Alexia	"Aspro Mavro" ("Άσπρο-μαύρο")	7	80
1989	Yiannis Savvidakis & Fani Polymeri	"Apopse As Vrethume" ("Απόψε ας βρεθούμε")	11	51
1990	Haris Anastazio	"Milas Poli" ("Μιλάς πολύ")	14	36
1991	Elena Patroklou	"SOS"	9	60
1992	Evridiki	"Teriazoume" ("Ταιριάζουμε")	11	57
1993	Kyriakos Zympoulakis & Dimos Van Beke	"Mi Stamatas" ("Μη σταματάς")	19	17
1994	Evridiki	"Ime Anthropos Ki Ego ("Είμαι άνθρωπος κι εγώ")	11	51
1995	Alex Panayi	"Sti Fotia" ("Στη φωτιά")	9	79
1996	Constantinos	"Mono Yia Mas" ("Μόνο για μας")	9	72
1997	Hara & Andreas Constantinou	"Mana Mou" ("Μάνα μου")	5	98
1998	Michalis Hatzigiannis	"Genesis" ("Γένεσις")	11	37
1999	Marlain	"Tha 'Ne Erotas" ("Θα 'ναι έρωτας")	22	2
2000	Voice	"Nomiza" ("Νόμιζα")	21	8
2002	One	"Gimme"	6	85
2003	Stelios Constantas	"Feeling Alive"	20	15
2004	Lisa Andreas	"Stronger Every Minute"	5	170	5	149
2005	Constantinos Christoforou	"Ela Ela (Come Baby)" ("Ελα Ελα")	18	46	X	X
2006	Annette Artani	"Why Angels Cry"	X	X	15	57
2007	Evridiki Theokleous	"Comme ci, comme ça"	X	X	15	65
2008	Evdokia Kadí	"Femme Fatale"	X	X	15	36
2009	Christina Metaxa	"Firefly"	X	X	14	32
2010	Jon Lilygreen & The Islanders	"Life Looks Better in Spring"	21	27	10	67
2011	Christos Mylordos[1]	"San Aggelos S'agapisa" ("Σαν άγγελος σ'αγάπησα")	X	X	18	16
2012	Ivi Adamou

Voting history (1981-2011)

Cyprus has given the most points to...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Greece	268
2	Spain	106
3	Ireland	90
4	United Kingdom	80
5	France	72

Cyprus has received the most points from...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Greece	193
2	United Kingdom	71
3	Malta	61
4	Finland	55
=	Denmark	55
5	Yugoslavia	52

NOTE: The totals in the above tables include only points awarded in Eurovision finals, and not the semi-finals since 2004.

Since introducing the semi-finals in 2004

Cyprus has given the most points to...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Greece	96
2	Bulgaria	53
3	Romania	51
4	Armenia	46
5	Ukraine	39
6	Russia	33
7	Azerbaijan	28
8	Georgia	26
9	Denmark	23
10	Belarus	22
	Moldova	22

Cyprus has received the most points from...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Greece	72
2	United Kingdom	46
3	Bulgaria	32
4	Malta	23
5	Monaco	22
6	Romania	21
	Albania	21
7	Ukraine	20
	Denmark	20

NOTE: The tables with points from 2004 include points awarded in both finals and semi-finals where the highest point from the final/semi-final is picked.

Commentators

Year(s)	Commentators
1981-1983	Fryni Papadopoulou
1984	Pavlos Pavlou
1985	Themis Themistokleous
1986	Neophytos Taliotis
1987	Fryni Papadopoulou
1989-1990	Neophytos Taliotis
1991-1994	Evi Papamichail
1995	Neophytos Taliotis
1996-2006	Evi Papamichail
2007	Vaso Komninou
2008-current	Melina Karageorgiou

• In addition since 2009 british writer and TV presenter Nathan Morley has provided the CyBC Radio commentary.

References

1. ^ Floras, Stella (10 September 2010). "Christos Mylordos to Eurovision 2011". ESCToday. http://esctoday.com/news/read/16111. Retrieved 10 September 2010. 

External links

• eurovision-cyprus.com - Eurovision Song Contest Cyprus
• eurovisioncyprus.ueuo.com - Cyprus Eurovision website (in Greek & English)
• National Final Cyprus
• Points to and from Cyprus eurovisioncovers.co.uk
• Music.net.cy - Cyprus National Finals 2010 (in Greek)