Cyprus has been represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 42 times since its debut in . The Cypriot participating broadcaster in the contest is the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC). Its first entry was "Monika" performed by the group Island, which finished sixth. The country's best result is a second-place finish with "" by Eleni Foureira in . Cyprus holds the record for having competed in the most editions of the contest without ever winning.
Between and , Cyprus failed to qualify from the semi-final round six times before withdrawing in . On 14 July 2014, CyBC officially confirmed its return to the contest for , and qualified for the final every year until , when it did not qualify. Cyprus returned to the final again in and , but failed to qualify once more in 2025, before qualifying again in .
Participation The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) is a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and thus is eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. It has participated in the contest representing Cyprus since its in 1981.
History Since its first entry, CyBC has participated every year except for , , and . In 1988, CyBC withdrew its entry after it determined that the intended entry was ineligible; the song had been presented to jurors (but not selected) in the 1984 internal selection process, which was a violation of their 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 its return in 2015, Cyprus has only failed to qualify twice, those being in 2022 and 2025, and even reached its best result with "" by Eleni Foureira coming second in 2018. Cyprus holds the record for most editions competing in the contest without a single win to date. Most of the Cypriot entries have been sung in Greek or English; the exceptions are in , in which the song "Nomiza" included both Greek and Italian, and in , in which "Comme ci, comme ça" by Evridiki was entirely in French. Additionally, in both 2018 and , the songs had some phrases in Spanish, for 2026 which had English and Greek in the language for "Jalla" by Antigoni, it contains the Cypriot Greek dialect which was the first time that the dialect was used in an Eurovision Song and by Cyprus itself.
Voting Cyprus's exchange of the maximum 12 points with has occurred regularly in the contest, which is often met with derision from the audience. In the 32 instances (1981–2025) of Cyprus being able to vote for Greece in a final, it has voted Greece as having the best song on 27 of them (the exceptions being 1981, 1985, 1990, 1991, 2015 and 2024). Since the introduction of televoting in , the two countries have consistently given each other the maximum 12 points except in 2015, when neither country gave their 12 points to the other, but both gave their maximum points to Italy.
Cyprus and never exchanged votes until 2003, a taboo attributed to the Cyprus dispute.
Popularity of the contest Since its first entry in 1981, Cyprus has had a mixture of varied 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 managed to reach the top 10 a number of times, something which made the Contest popular with the Cypriot public. Since 2004, Cyprus' performance has dropped notably. From 2006 to 2009 and again in 2011 and 2013, the country failed 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.
Participation overview + Table key 2 Second place ◁ Last place ◇ Entry selected but did not compete
Year Artist Song Language Final Points Semi Points Island "" Greek 6 69 colspan="2" rowspan="12" Anna Vissi "" Greek 5 85 Stavros and Constantina "" Greek 16 26 Andy Paul "Anna Mari-Elena" Greek 15 31 Lia Vissi "" Greek 16 15 Elpida "" Greek 20 ◁ 4 Alexia "" Greek 7 80 Yiannis Dimitrou ◇ "" ◇ Greek ◇ colspan="2" Fanny Polymeri and Yiannis Savvidakis "" Greek 11 51 Anastazio "" Greek 14 36 Elena Patroklou "S.O.S." Greek 9 60 Evridiki "" Greek 11 57 Zymboulakis and Van Beke "" Greek 19 17 colspan="2" Evridiki "" Greek 11 51 colspan="2" rowspan="2" Alexandros Panayi "" Greek 9 79 Constantinos "" Greek 9 72 15 42 Hara and Andreas Konstantinou "" Greek 5 98 colspan="2" rowspan="6" Michael Hajiyanni "" Greek 11 37 Marlain "" Greek 22 2 Voice "" Greek, Italian 21 8 One "Gimme" English 6 85 Stelios Constantas "Feeling Alive" English 20 15 Lisa Andreas "Stronger Every Minute" English 5 170 5 149 Constantinos Christoforou "" English 18 46 colspan="2" Annet Artani "Why Angels Cry" English colspan="2" rowspan="4" 15 57 Evridiki "" French 15 65 Evdokia Kadi "" Greek 15 36 Christina Metaxa "Firefly" English 14 32 Jon Lilygreen and the Islanders "Life Looks Better in Spring" English 21 27 10 67 Christos Mylordos "" Greek colspan="2" 18 16 Ivi Adamou "La La Love" English 16 65 7 91 Despina Olympiou "" Greek colspan="2" 15 11 John Karayiannis "One Thing I Should Have Done" English 22 11 6 87 Minus One "Alter Ego" English 21 96 8 164 Hovig "Gravity" English 21 68 5 164 Eleni Foureira "" English 2 436 2 262 Tamta "Replay" English 13 109 9 149 Sandro ◇ "Running" ◇ English ◇ colspan="4" Elena Tsagrinou "" English 16 94 6 170 Andromache "" English, Greek colspan="2" 12 63 Andrew Lambrou "Break a Broken Heart" English 12 126 7 94 Silia Kapsis "Liar" English 15 78 6 67 Theo Evan "Shh" English colspan="2" 11 44 Antigoni "Jalla" English, Greek 19 75 10 122
Awards Marcel Bezençon Awards
YearCategorySongComposer(s)lyrics (l) / music (m)PerformerFinalPointsHost city Composer Award "Stronger Every Minute" Mike Konnaris (m & l) Lisa Andreas5170 Istanbul Artistic Award "Fuego"Alex Papaconstantinou, Geraldo Sandell,Viktor Svensson, Anderz Wrethov Didrick Eleni Foureira 2 436 Lisbon
Related involvement Conductors YearConductorNotes Michael Rozakis Martyn Ford Michael Rozakis Pierre Cao Charis Andreadis Martyn Ford Jo Carlier John Themis Charis Andreadis Stanko Selak Alexander Kirov ZografovGeorge TheofanousStavros LantsiasCostas Cacogiannis
Heads of delegation Each participating broadcaster 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 delegationMarios SkordisMarios SkordisTasos Trifonos–presentEvi Papamichael
Commentators and spokespersons
YearTelevision commentatorRadio commentatorSpokespersoncolspan="2" rowspan="2" – colspan="2" Fryni Papadopoulou Neophytos Taliotis Anna Partelidou Pavlos Pavlou Themis Themistokleous Themis Themistokleous Fryni Papadopoulou Themis Themistokleous Daphne Bokota (for ERT and RIK) Neophytos Taliotis Pavlos PavlouAnna Partelidou Evi Papamichael Andreas IakovidisMarios Skordis Marina Maleni Loukas Hamatsos Pavlos Pavlou Melani Steliou Loukas Hamatsos rowspan="5" Melani Steliou Constantinos Christoforou Vaso Komninou Giannis Haralambous Melina Karageorgiou Hristina Marouhou Nathan MorleySophia Paraskeva Christina Metaxa rowspan="2" Loukas Hamatsos Melina Karageorgiou Melina Karageorgiou Loukas Hamatsos Tasos Tryfonos and Christiana Artemiou Tasos Tryfonos and Christiana Artemiou John Karayiannis Costas Constantinou and Vaso Komninou rowspan="6" Hovig Evridiki and Tasos Trifonos Louis Patsalides Loukas Hamatsos Melina Karageorgiou and Alexandros Taramountas Melina Karageorgiou and HovigMelina Karageorgiou and Alexandros TaramountasMelina Karageorgiou
Stage directors YearStage director2005Fotis Nikolaou2008Fotis Nikolaou2009Fotis Nikolaou2011Fotis Nikolaou2012Apollon Papatheoharis2013Maria Liraraki2016Sacha Jean-Baptiste2017Charis Savva2018Sacha Jean-Baptiste2019Sacha Jean-Baptiste2020Marvin Dietmann2021Marvin Dietmann2022Marvin Dietmann and Dan Shipton2023Marvin Dietmann and Ross Nicholson2025Sergio Jaén
Costume designers YearCostume designersDoukas HatzidoukasMarios SavvidisDionisis KolpodinosAndreas ZannetidisVrettos VrettakosAlexandre KatsaitiCelia KrithariotiStelios Koudounaris
Photo gallery
See also Cyprus in the Eurovision Young Musicians Cyprus in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Notes
References