Today, October 1, marks the ‘Independence Day of Cyprus’. On August 16 in 1960 the United Kingdom granted Cyprus full sovereignty and the Republic of Cyprus formed. Their independence was celebrated on October 1 of that year.
Cyprus made its debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981 with their first representative being the musical group Island, formed especially for the Contest, who sung the Greek song ‘Monika’. Their entry ended up in 6th place, making it an impressive start for Cyprus. Over the last 39 years they have achieved 10 top 10 placings.
In celebration of ‘Independence Day of Cyprus’ members of the Aussievision team have ranked their favourite Eurovision entires from this island nation.
The Aussievision team members voted for their top 5 Cypriot entires using score system of 12, 8, 6, 4 2.
Without further ado let’s check out Aussievision’s favourite Cypriot entries:
5. Anna Vissi - ‘Mono i agapi (Μόνο η αγάπη)’ (1982) - 16 points
Anna Vissi first performed at Eurovision representing Greece in 1980 as Anna Vissi and The Epikouri with the song ‘Autostop’. It would be only two years later when she returned to the Contest representing her native homeland Cyprus with her self-penned ballad ‘Mono i agapi’, which we have ranked as 5th in our favourite Cypriot entries.
Anna Vissi’s performance is very iconic with the 80s Greek music scene. She reached 5th place, Cyprus’ best result in the Contest at the time after only their second year of participation.
4. Tamta - ‘Replay’ (2019) - 25 points
In 2019 Cyprus blasted its way into the Contest with yet another huge banger by Georgian-Greek singer Tamta. Composed and produced by most of the team behind ‘Fuego’, ‘Replay’ was a huge summer hit charting throughout Europe, with its best placings on Belgium’s Ultratip Wallonia chart at No.8 and on Greece’s singles chart at No.2.
Interestingly Tamta had attempted to represent Greece at Eurovision in 2007 through their national final ‘Ellinikós Telikós 2007’. Her entry ‘With Love’ finished in 2nd place being beaten by Sarbel with ‘Yassou Maria’. ‘Yassou Maria’ was written by Greek songwriter and music producer Alex P who wrote and produced ‘Fuego’ and ‘Replay’.
3. Minus One - ‘Alter Ego’ (2016) - 28 points 12 points: Fleur
In 2015 the Cypriot rock band Minus One tried to represent Cyprus at Eurovision with their song ‘Shine’ entering the Cypriot national final ‘Eurovision Song Project’. In the final they were the jury favourite but came last in the televote finishing in 3rd place.
In 2016 Cyprus took a gamble, doing away with the ballads, and went with Minus One and their alternative rock song ‘Alter Ego’. The band had worked with Thomas G:son, one half of the team behind ‘Euphoria’ by Loreen, to write ‘Alter Ego’. They made the final and finished in 21st place.
2. Ivi Adamou - ‘La La Love’ (2012) - 54 points
Greek Cypriot singer Ivi Adamou stormed into the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest with the huge banger and fan favourite ‘La La Love’. So it is no surprise it came in 2nd place in Aussievision’s Cypriot Eurovision rankings.
Ivi came into prominence in Greece and Cyprus after finishing in sixth place in Greece’s The X Factor in 2010. She was internally selected to represent Cyprus in 2012 and a national final ‘A Song For Ivi’ was created to select her song. ‘La La Love’ was both a jury and televote favourite.
‘La La Love’ is another song co-written by Alex P, his third at Eurovision after writing ‘Yassou Maria’ by Sarbel in 2007 for Greece and ‘Always’ for Aysel and Arash for Azerbaijan in 2009. After Eurovision ‘La La Love' charted very well across Europe and peaked at No.2 on Greece’s Digital Songs chart.
1. Eleni Foureira - ‘Fuego’ (2018) - 96 points 12 points: Dale, Hugo, Steve, Mike, Emma, Laura & Liv
No surprises here! Nearly every Aussievision team member voting giving 'Fuego' their 12 points!
This entry is on fire and is one of the most iconic Eurovision performances in recent years.
The stage director was choreographer Sacha Jean-Baptiste who has a long list of Eurovision performances which she has been involved with, most notably Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’, Nina Sublatti’s ‘Warrior’, Luca Hänni’s ‘She Got Me’ and our very own Jessica Mauboy’s ‘We Got Love’. The staging with its iconic choreography, great lighting, and a lot of fire created huge buzz back in 2018, and will be talked about for years to come.
The full list of Cypriot entries that received votes from the Aussievision team were:
1. Eleni Foureira - ‘Fuego’ (2018) - 96 points 2. Ivi Adamou - ‘La La Love’ (2012) - 54 points 3. Minus One - ‘Alter Ego’ (2016) - 28 points 4. Tamta - ‘Replay’ (2019) - 25 points 5. Anna Vissi - ‘Mono i agapi (Μόνο η αγάπη)’ (1982) - 16 points 6. Lisa Andreas - ‘Stronger Every Minute’ (2004) - 12 points (12 points from Kyriakos) =7. Island - ‘Monika (Μόνικα)’ (1981) - 10 points =7. Hovig - ‘Gravity’ (2017) - 10 points 9. Evridiki - ‘Comme ci, comme ça’ (2007) - 8 points =10. Constantinos - ‘Mono gia mas (Μόνο για μας)’ (1996)- 6 points =10. Hara & Andreas Constantinou - ‘Mana Mou (Μάνα μου)’ (1997) - 6 points =12. Sandro - ‘Running’ (2020) - 4 points =12. One - ‘Gimme’ (2002) - 4 points =12. Evridiki - ‘Eimai Anthropos Ki Ego’ (Είμαι άνθρωπος κι εγώ)’ (1994) - 4 points =12. Constantinos Christoforou - ‘Ela Ela (Come Baby)’ (2005) - 4 points