That was it! Following a wonderful event with entertainment and great suspense up to the last moment, the 63rd Eurovision Song Contest crowned its winner, Israel! The Israeli people are pleased to celebrate their 4th Eurovision victory and will have the honor to host the 64th competition on home soil next May. 

Israel might have won the contest, but it was also in this year’s runner-up country, Cyprus, where the TV ratings of the national broadcaster CyBC reached at record high levels, even the unbeatable percentage of 94.4%!

Closer than ever to the trophy

With Eleni Foureira’s explosive performance of her song Fuego, which made even the largest news networks, like BBC and The New York Times talk about her, the island of Aphrodite came closer than ever to its first Eurovision victory, since its debut in 1981. Eleni’s steady first place in the bookers’ preferences throughout the week and the hope of the coveted trophy, brought all Cypriots in front of their screens last night.

In particular, with the show’s beginning, CyBC was enjoying a 52.3% share, which climbed to 73% during the second hour. 85,7% of the Cypriots watched Eleni’s performance at around 23:00 CEST, while the result’s announcement saw an incredible 94.4%!

Despite not winning the contest, Eleni Foureira made Cypriots proud, giving them their best ever Eurovision result, coming 2nd with a total of 436 points. This was also the island’s first Top 10 placing after their 5th place in 2004.

High ratings in Greece too

Although Greece and Yianna Terzi didn’t manage to qualify from the first semi-final, the interest in yesterday’s result could not be low in Eleni Foureira’s homeland.

The country’s national broadasting service ERT reported extremely high ratings of 66.1% during the voting sequence (69.7% with the 15-44 age group), with an average audience share of 47.9% for the entire show (53.3% with the 15-44 age group).