From Fire to 'Liar': 40 years of Cyprus at Eurovision

On Monday 2 September, Cypriot broadcaster CyBC revealed that Theo Evan will be the artist representing the country at the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in May. Theo is the first act of Basel 2025 to be announced and he will be performing Cyprus' 41st entry on the Eurovision stage.

In those 40 songs Cyprus has sent to the Contest so far, they've brought the fire, plenty of flavour and an admirably broad spectrum of rhythm. And they've also introduced the rest of Europe to some proper pop superstars from the region where the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas meet. 

Let's put Cyprus on Replay, shall we?

The first Cypriot entry was the song Monika performed by the group Island. Though the quartet had to contend with another two-male / two-female band stealing the limelight that night (Bucks Fizz took the trophy for the United Kingdom with Making Your Mind Up) Island gave their country a strong start at Eurovision, finishing in 6th place

That initial placement was the first of what is now 10 Top 10 results for Cyprus at the Eurovision Song Contest to date. Alas, none of those have included a victory. And that means that Cyprus currently holds the record for competing at the most Contests without ever achieving a win.

Cyprus has also finished in that most tantalising position of 11th on 4 occasions. Though mercifully for them, this has never happened in the Semi-Finals. 

Since the Semi-Finals have been introduced, Cyprus' qualification record has been a tale of two halves. Between 2004 and 2013, the island nation has fallen short of qualifying for the Grand Final on 6 occasions, before withdrawing from the Contest in 2014.

From their 2015 comeback onwards, however, things have gone much more swimmingly for the Cypriots, with Grand Final greatness being achieved on all but one occasion between then and 2024. 

Cyprus has contributed three show openers in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest; a tall order through which an entry is tasked with setting the right mood for everyone watching at home on Saturday night. 

The Cypriots got the memo, though, with all three of them going down in Eurovision history as some of our most fabulous party-starters: Hara and Andreas Konstantinou's catchy Mana Mou in 1997, ONE's suave Gimme in 2002, and Eleni Tsagrinou's salacious El Diablo in 2021.

Over half of Cyprus' 40 Eurovision entries have been in Greek, while almost half have been performed in English. But they've also given us two song titles in French (Comme Ci, Comme Ça and Femme Fatale) and two in Spanish (Fuego and El Diablo). 

We love a lingo lesson from the land of Larnaca and Limmasol! 

Across the 40 entries it has contributed to the Contest, Cyprus has by now become renowned for sending some absolute queens to the stage; for which Eurovision audiences are eternally grateful. 

But perhaps Cyprus' signature Eurovision queen is Evridiki, who has represented her country on three occasions (so far!). 

In the early '90s, Cyprus sent the exquisite Evridiki on two outings; 1992 and 1994, with the songs Teriazoume and Ime Anthropos Ki Ego, respectively. Both Greek-language ballads, they shared a similar nail-biting fate, finishing just outside the Top 10 in 11th place. 

Evridiki returned to the Contest over a decade later in 2007, raising the tempo with Comme Ci, Comme Ça, which ended up landing in 15th place at the infamous 28-song Semi-Final in Helsinki.

Evridiki isn't the only Cypriot to have represented her country three times at the Eurovision Song Contest, however. The artist Constantinos also began his trinity of tries in the '90s, debuting at the 1996 Contest with Mono Gia Mas and landing Cyprus in 9th place once all the scores had come in.

He returned to the Contest as a soloist at Kyiv 2005 with Ela Ela, but not before he'd formed a boyband and taken them to Eurovision in 2002. As a member of ONE, Constantinos opened Tallinn 2002 with Gimme, giving Cyprus a respectable 6th-place finish on the night.

Cyprus has also given the Eurovision stage to some real superstars of the Greek-language music world down through the years. Elpida, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Despina Olympiou and Tamta have all represented Cyprus, as has Anna Vissi, who gave Cyprus its very first Top 5 result at the Contest in 1982, with her song Mono i Agapi.

Alex Panayi got to represent Cyprus both as a soloist in 1995 and again as part of the duo Voice in 2000. Alex has since gone on to work as a stage director, vocal director and backing vocalist at many Eurovision Song Contests throughout the 21st century. 

And of course, another pop behemoth finally got to grace the Eurovision stage courtesy of Cyprus in 2018. 

After attempting unsuccessfully to represent Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2017, CyBC selected Eleni Foureira to fly the Cypriot flag at Lisbon 2018. 

If Cyprus were looking for some high high highs, then getting a dose of Eleni Foureira lifted them way up and kept taking them higher and higher... At the close of voting at the Grand Final, Eleni's Fuego had given Cyprus not just its best result of all time at the Eurovision Song Contest, but its highest points haul, too. 

And that second-place finish with a score of 436 has yet to be beaten by any Cypriot entry since.

Eleni Foureira's star turn made such an impact on Eurovision audiences that she's twice been invited back as a guest performer; in 2019 to make Verka Serduchka's Dancing Lasha Tumbai her own during the Grand Final, and in 2024, to perform a new version of Fuego as part of the opening number for the First Semi-Final.

In its 40 Contests, Cyprus has never had to end the night on a 'nul points' score. Even on the one occasion that Cyprus finished in last place (in 1986, with Tora Zo by Elpida), the song still managed to attract 4 points from juries.

Cyprus' lowest points tally to date is the two points it earned in 1999, in what was seen as a surprisingly moderate finish for the Cypriots. 

Prior to the Contest in Jerusalem, Marlain's Tha'ne Eratos had been one of the big favourites to win, according to the betting odds. But on the night, performing right in between the eventual winner (Sweden's Take Me To Your Heaven) and the eventual runner-up (Iceland's All Out Of Luck), Cyprus' entry didn't receive a similar influx of points to its lineup buddies. It finished in 22nd place, in a field of 23.

At its most recent participation in Malmö, Cyprus was represented by Silia Kapsis with the song Liar. It was the second year in a row that Cyprus had sent an Australian born singer of Cypriot descent, after Andrew Lambrou represented the country at Liverpool 2023.

In Malmö, Silia took Cyprus to the Grand Final, where Liar finished in 15th place with 78 points.

You can peruse Cyprus' full Eurovision Song Contest participation history over on their Country Profile at Eurovision.tv. 

You can listen to all 37 songs of Eurovision 2024 via your favourite streaming service or watch the music videos on our YouTube channel.

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