Best of the Bunch: Cyprus

Cyprus have been a part of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1981, and since then have participated in all but three contests, first in 1988, then 2001 and in 2014. Out of the 33 appearances, Cyprus has been a part of 27 finals, with their best result being 5^th place, which they’ve achieved 3 times now, with the most recent in 2004. Today we start our Best of the Bunch journey in 2006, and continue on to 2015, so let’s get started!

In 2006, Cyprus sent Annet Artani to the contest, which was hosted by Greece. Annet is a Greek American singer herself, and was actually one of the co-writers for the worldwide hit ‘Everytime,’ a song off Britney Spears’ fourth album. Back to Annet, who performed the song Why Angels Cry in the semi-finals, however the ballad failed to make it to the finals, missing out with 15^th place and 57 points.

The following year, Cyprus was represented by Evridiki, who had already participated in Eurovision twice before, in 1992 and 1994, reaching 11^th place for both those attempts. This time around, she performed a song in French called Comme ci, comme ça, which unfortunately didn’t reach the heights of her previous performances. Evridiki ended up in 15^th place in the semi-final with 65 points.

In 2008, Evdokia Kadí was chosen to represent the nation with the song Femme Fatale, sung completely in the Greek language for the first time since the Cypriot entry in 1999 (in reference to the Cypriot entries!). For the third time in a row, Cyprus ended up in 15^th place in the semi-finals, this time with 36 points.

Cyprus continued with girl power, and sent Christina Metaxa to fly the flag with the song Firefly. The song reached a similar fate to the songs previous, having failed to reach the final for the 4^th year in a row, this time at 14^th position with 32 points.

For 2010, Cyprus looked abroad for their representative, and found Jon Lilygreen, originally from Wales. He and the band The Islanders sung the English language song Life Looks Better In Spring, and for the first time since 2005, Cyprus qualified for the final, only just, at 10^th place in the semi-final. In the final itself, the group came 21^st with 27 points.

The following year, Cyprus reverted back to singing in Greek with the song San Aggelos S’agapisa, performed by Christos Mylordos. Unfortunately, the song didn’t impact Europe enough to get the votes to get into the final, ending up in 18^th place in the semi-final with 16 points.

In 2012, Cyprus took it up a notch and sent Ivi Adamou with a cracking pop song called La La Love. Finally, Cyprus had some success, reaching the final after qualifying in 7^th place. In the final, the song reached 16^th position, the best result since 2004.

In 2013, Despina Olympiou was chosen to represent the nation with a song that was quite different from that of the previous year, although sung by another strong female voice. The song was called An Me Thimasai, and was sung in Greek. Once again, the Cypriot entry failed to make a strong impact, ending up in 15^th position in the semi-final.

In 2014, Cyprus withdrew from the contest due to financial issues.

The nation made their return in 2015 with a giant national final to select their act. John Karayiannis came out on top with the song One Thing I Should Have Done. Although not one of the early favourites, the performance surprised Europe, resulting in Cyprus returning to the final. The song ended up in 22^nd place in the final with 11 points.

Now we’ve heard the entries, it’s your time to vote for your Best of the Bunch!