CyBC, the national Cypriot broadcaster has released the rules, regulations and format for its 2015 Eurovision national selection.

Earlier today CyBC announced its return to Eurovision and confirmed to ESCToday.com its participation at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Austria next year.

Cyprus has opted to select its 2015 Eurovision entry and representative via a national selection culminating in a grand national final scheduled to be held at the end of January 2015.  The dates of the televised shows and grand national final will be released by CyBC shortly.

Cyprus Eurovision 2015 National Selection/National Final Format

Only Cypriot citizens living in Cyprus or overseas or artists of Cypriot origin can participate in the competition. Submissions for artists and composers to submit their applications has kicked off as of today and will close on 5 September. Composers and lyricists can be from overseas and of any nationality as long as one of the team members of the creative team is a Cypriot team. Each team can submit no more than 2 entries in the competition. You can find the rules and regulations here.

The 2015 Cypriot national final will consist of televised auditions, live Semifinals, a Second  Chance and the Grand Final. Hence the format will include 4 phases:

PHASE 1 –

Televised  auditions will be held  where we will get the chance to listen to a  1 minute snippet of each the competing entries ( CyBC will shorlist a number of entries from all the submitted entries for this phase). The auditions will be broadcast on CyBC.

PHASE 2

Semifinals will be held and televised live on CyBC. The winner of each Semifal  will qualify to the Grand Final whilst the runner will proceed to the Second Chance. The results will be determined via a 50/50 jury/public televoting deliberation.

PHASE 3

The Second Chance will be held and televised live on CyBC. The top 2 entries will qualify for the Grand Final. The results will be determined via a 50/50 jury/public televoting deliberation.

PHASE 4

The Grand final- the 2015 Cyprus national final- (date TBC) will be held and televised live on CyBC. The 2015 Cypriot Eurovision entry and representative for Austria will be determined via a 50/50 public televoting/jury deliberation.

Cyprus debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981 with Island’s Monika and is yet to win Europe’s favourite television show. The Mediterranean island’s best placing at the contest has been a 5th placing in 1982, 1997, and 2004.

Stay tuned to esctoday.com for the latest news on Cyprus and the Euroivision Song Contest.