Over night Cyprus released their song for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam.
Sandro will perform ‘Running’ which is composed and written by Alfie Arcuri, Sebastian Metzner Rickards, Octavian, Sandro and Teo DK.
The underlining message of ‘Running’ is a “dark story that showcases the struggle against adversity and the storms we have to weather in life”. The song takes Cyprus in a different and refreshing direction from the Eleni Foureira and Tamta bangers of previous years.
Over the last few months CyBC had been drip feeding us clues about the highly anticipated entry.
Back in February not long after the big ‘Eurovision - Australia Decides 2020’ weekend, last years fifth placed ‘Eurovision - Australia Decides 2019’ artist and ‘The Voice Australia’ 2016 winner, Alfie Arcuri, announced his participation in Eurovision 2020.
Through his Instagram account he reported that he will be travelling to Rotterdam for Eurovision not as an artist but as a composer for the Cypriot entry.
Back in August last year Alfie Arcuri competed in Romania’s ‘Cerbul de Aur’ (Golden Stag Festival) in Brasov. The ‘Golden Stag Festival’ dates back to 1968 and is one of the largest international song competitions outside of Eurovision. Alfie sung his Australia Decides entry ‘To Myself’ and a cover of 'Acasă' by Smiley, a Romanian singer, songwriter and composer. 'Acasă' earned him the award for best performance of a Romanian song.
During his first trip to Europe, Alfie also visited a studio in Berlin where he teased that he was working on a new project. He revealed through his Instagram account that he spent 9 days in writing sessions and finished up with 6 new songs. A song from that recording session has been officially confirmed to be selected by the Cypriot Eurovision team for Sandro.
All the way back in November last year CyBC, the Cypriot broadcaster, announced that they internally Sandro Nicolas who will represent Cyprus at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.
The singer who has an American father and a Greek mother, and who was born and grew up in Germany had previous competed in The Voice Germany in 2018. He made it up to the Sing Off stage where he sung Dua Lipa’s “Hotter Than Hell”. He also competed in the New Wave international contest held in Sochi, Russia in August last year where he finished at 6th place.
Alfie’s involvement didn’t come as a surprise. Back in January CyBC dropped a clue into Sandro’s entry for Eurovision. On their offical Facebook page they showcased a snippet, fans recognised it as a snippet from Alfie’s music video for ‘If They Only Knew’ his second officially released single from 2017.
On February 17 the Cypriot Eurovision team revealed another member of the composing team with Alfie, and that was Teo Arkitekt as the producer and co-writer. Teo is from Greece and has previously worked with two previous Eurovision artists Anna Vissi and Tamta.
Cyprus debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1981 with the Island performing ‘Μόνικα’ finishing up in 6th place. Over the years Cyprus managed to reach fifth place three times firstly in 1982 with Anna Vissi’s ‘Μόνο η αγάπη’ and then again in 1997 with Hara & Andreas Constantinou ‘Μάνα μου’ and again in 2004 with Lisa Andreas’s power ballad ‘Stronger Every Minute’. It wouldn’t be until 2018 when Cyprus would get its best result yet when Eleni Foureira stormed Eurovision Song Contest with her runner up placed epic banger ‘Fuego’.