Cyprus in Eurovision
Cyprus debuted in Eurovision back in 1981, and since the introduction of the semifinals in 2004 have qualified to the grand final nine times. While unfortunately failing to qualify between 2006 and 2009, then again in 2011 and 2013, the country has seen a string of quality results give them five qualifications in a row.
In 2018, Eleni Foureira achieved their best ever result with her song ‘Fuego’, which finished in 2nd place with 436 points, just 93 points behind eventual winner Netta.
2021 entry: Elena Tsagrinou – ‘El diablo’
Semi-final: Elena Tsagrinou will compete in semi-final 1 in 8th position in the running order
My Eurovision Scoreboard fan ranking: 5th out of 39 entries
Odds to win ranking: 9th out of 39 entries
Odds to qualify ranking: 4th out of 16 entries
(rankings as of 3 May 2021)
About the artist
26-year-old Elena Tsagrinou was born in Athens, Greece, who attended a musical high school and began her professional music career as the lead singer of the Greek band OtherView, which she left to begin pursuing a solo career back in 2018 after five years with the group.
No stranger to the Greek television scene, Elena took part in the Greek adaptation of ‘Got Talent’ in 2009, and was the backstage presenter of ‘The Voice of Greece’ from 2016 to 2017. She has appeared on MAD TV’s ‘K-POP Stars’, and has worked as a voice actress, playing the role of Jenny in ‘Free Birds’ and Smurflily in ‘Smurfs: The Lost Village’.
She was internally chosen for Eurovision 2021 by Cypriot Eurovision broadcaster CyBC, replacing the previous year’s intended contestant, Sandro.
About the song
‘El diablo’ is written by Jimmy “Joker” Thornfeldt, Laurell Barker, Oxa, and Thomas Stengaard, and is produced by Jimmy “Joker” Thornfeldt and Elena Tsagrinou.
For songwriter Laurell Barker, this will mark the sixth Eurovision entry she has written. Her most successful co-written Eurovision song to date was Switzerland’s 2019 entry, ‘She Got Me’ by Luca Hänni, which came fourth.
Controversy
Of course, Eurovision doesn’t come without some controversy, and Cyprus has not been untouched this year.
Orthodox Christians around Cyprus protested the Cypriot broadcasters decision to send a song to Eurovision called ‘El diablo’, calling for the withdrawal of the song. They event went outside the headquarters of CyBC holding wooden crosses and singing hymns.
Following these protests, CyBC stood behind their entry, insisting that it would not be withdrawn.
Aussievision podcast Cyprus episode
Check out the Aussievision podcast review and rank episode including comments from the team. Listen via:
Apple
Spotify
Podcast addict: https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/1958380