Tonight marks the return of Cyprus to the Eurovision Song Contest following a one year break. Watch the first round of auditions for their national selection show, The Eurovision Project, televised by the country’s national broadcaster CyBC.
About the show
The Grand Final of the Eurovision Project, which will determine the country’s next Eurovision representative, will take place in Nicosia on Sunday 1 February 2015. There will be nine televised audition rounds, starting with this evening’s show, with an overall total of sixty songs competing for the opportunity to represent Cyprus at the Vienna extravaganza next year.
The audition shows will include a feature called the Eurobox, in which each participant will discuss their Eurovision connection and perform a cover version of a Eurovision Song Contest entry from the past sixty years. The audition shows will also feature the Viewing Room, where family and friends will sit in support of each participant, and the Eurostudio. The Eurostudio, where participants will perform half-playback, will prove crucial to a contestant’s hopes of proceeding to the next phase of the competition, as after this performance each contestant will need three “Yes” votes from the Jury. Twenty songs will progress to the Eurochallenge – the second phase of the auditions.
The Eurovision Project will be presented by the model and television personality Antri Karantoni, and the specially selected Jury panel includes former Cypriot Eurovision representatives Elena Patroklou (1991), Alex Panayi (1995 and 2000) and Despina Olympiou (2013). You can read more about the Cypriot national selection along with the full schedule here.
How to watch
[alert-info]The show will commence at 20:30 CET (21:30 local time) and will last for ninety minutes.
- Watch via the CyBC website
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The songs and acts
The names of all sixty songs and acts can be found below:
- Victorious – Yuri Melikov
- Unicorn – Anastasia Liberos
- Lonely – Lucy Sofroniou
- Miracle – Olivia Sofocli
- Run run run – Nelena Paparisva
- Scared – Valence (Chrisovalantis Nikolaou)
- Let your mind free – Flirt
- Chlomi selini (Pale moon) – Nikolas Leventis
- One thing I should have done – Giannis Karagiannis
- Rainbow – Kostas Karaiskos
- Shine – Minus One
- Stone in a river – Hovig
- Come and fight for freedom – Eva Diva
- Don’t give up on me (Just yet) – ApolloNia
- Shake dat – Georgiou Kyriakos
- You can’t stop love – Christina Papaioannou
- Right in – Aimily Charalampous
- Ena kafe mazi (A coffee together) – Nikolas Mavromichalis
- Without your love – Panagiotis Koufogiannis
- Magic – Doody
- Find me – Maria Pampori
- No money no honey – Elena Panayi
- Steko akoma (Still hanging on) – Kostas Archontous
- Still – Maria Evangelou
- Play me like a pop song – Maria Evangelou
- My aura is bright – Chrystalla Patsia feat. DJ performer Cyprus Karavioti
- Said it all before – Pieros Kezou
- Live your myth – Adrenaline by Kristis Koupatos
- Call on love – Stefanos Tsiitsios (Stephano Prunabelli)
- March to doubt – Stefanos Tsiitsios (Stephano Prunabelli)
- Beat of my heart – Ioanna Protopapa
- World one – Stella Esmeralda Konstantinou
- Dawn – Eleni Iracleus
- Chorevo mambo (Dancing mambo) – Evagoras Evagorou
- Tha sou tragoudiso (I’ll sing for you) – Maria Pavlou
- Until the end of time – Lady Ava
- Eimai edo (I am here) – Nikos Trikki
- Your love – Gore Melian
- Stand up – Konstantinos Michailoudi
- Meine (Stay) – Christos Rialas
- Deila den agapo (I don’t love timidly) – Charis Savva, Nearchos Evaggelou
- The key is love – Lady Ava
- Real you – Eleni Savva
- Heaven on Earth – Eleonora
- Alone in love – Lefki Stilianou
- Thelo na gino oranos (I want to become the sky) – Stella Stilianou
- Thelo na chatho (I want to disappear) – Stella Stilianou
- Kori tis Messogeiou (Daughter of the Medditerranean sea) – Christodoula Tsaggara
- Lonely nights – Lefki Stilianou
- I didn’t know – Christina Matsa
- When I look at you – Dimitris Iakovou
- Call for me – Iosif Charalampous
- I wanna dance (I say tempo) – Iosif Charalampous
- #Is this real life – Groove Therapy
- Sailing ships pirates and dragons – Giorgos Moisi, Maria Moskofian, Christiana Chatziiordanous
- In this arms – Christina Tselepou
- When we used to be – Georgiou Konstantina
- Remember my love – Ifigenia Loukaidou featuring Lyrical Eye
- Just another guy – Marios Liasidos
- Rebound – Neofitos Stratis
The story so far
Cyprus debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest of 1981, with a total of thirty-one appearances to date. Their best results have been fifth place finishes in 1982 (Anna Vissi, Mono i agapi), 1997 (Hara and Andreas Constantinou, Mana mou) and 2004 (Lisa Andreas, Stronger every minute). Cyprus was most recently represented by Despina Olympiou, who sang An me thimasai at the Malmö competition in 2013, finishing in fifteenth place in the first semi-final with a total of eleven points.