Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest (French: Concours Eurovision de la chanson), often shortened to ESC or Eurovision, is the longest-running annual TV song competition, held, primarily, among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1956. The competition was based upon the existing Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy.

Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The contest has been broadcast every year for sixty years, since its inauguration in 1956, and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to several countries that do not compete, such as the USA and China. An exception was made in 2015, when Australia was allowed to compete as a guest entrant as part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the event. In November 2015, the EBU announced that Australia would return in 2016. Since 2000, the contest has also been broadcast over the Internet, via the Eurovision website.

Eurovision Song Contest 1966

The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the 11th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 5 March 1966 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg, following the country's win at the previous 1965 edition. The host venue was Grand Auditorium de RTL in Villa Louvigny. The presenter was Josiane Chen.

The winner was Austria with the song "Merci, Chérie" performed and composed by Udo Jürgens, and written by Jürgens and Thomas Hörbiger. This would remain Austria's only win in the contest until their second win in 2014. The rule stating that a country could only sing in any of its national languages was originally created in this year, possibly due to the 1965 edition's Swedish entry which was sung in English.

Location

The 1966 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Luxembourg City. The venue chosen to host the 1966 contest was the Villa Louvigny, which has also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1962. The building served as the headquarters of Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, the forerunner of RTL Group. It is located in Municipal Park, in the Ville Haute quarter of the centre of the city.

Eurovision Song Contest 2010

The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th annual Eurovision Song Contest, broadcast from the Telenor Arena in Bærum, Greater Oslo, Norway. Norway gained the rights to host the contest after achieving a record breaking victory in Moscow the previous year. It was the third time Norway had hosted the contest, having previously done so in 1986 and 1996. The 2010 winner was Germany with Lena singing "Satellite", written by American Julie Frost and Denmark's John Gordon. It was Germany's first win in twenty-eight years, its second since the Contest's inception, and its first win as a unified country. It was also the first time a "Big Four" country won the contest since the rule's introduction in 2000.

The semi-finals took place on 25 and 27 May 2010 while the final was scheduled for 29 May 2010. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that the voting system used in the semi-finals would change from previous years to balance jury voting with televoting. A return of accompaniment by orchestra was also proposed, but did not happen.

Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000

Cyprus and CyBC chose to host a National Selection with the winner being chosen an "expert" jury. Alexandros Panayi & Christina Argyri were chosen with "Nomiza" and placed 21st at Eurovision.

National final

The National Final took place on February 16, 2000 at the Nea Leoforos Nightclub in Limassol and was hosted by Loukas Hamatsos. There were 11 songs in the final with the winning song chosen solely by an "expert" jury.

Result of National Final

By order performed:

At Eurovision

"Nomiza" was performed eleventh on the night (following Belgium's Nathalie Sorce with "Envie de vivre" and preceding Iceland's August & Telma with "Tell Me!"). At the close of voting, it had received 8 points, placing 21st in a field of 24.

Due to poor results, Cyprus was not permitted to take part in the 2001 Contest, however they were re-admitted for the following year. Thus, the song was succeeded as Cypriot representative at the 2002 Contest by One with "Gimme".

Points Awarded by Cyprus

Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005

Cyprus was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 by Constantinos Christoforou and the song "Ela Ela (Come Baby)". The Cypriot National Final was held on February 1, in Limassol hosted by Tasos Trifonos and Eleni Manousaki. Prior to the national final, the Cypriot Broadcaster CyBC had internally selected Constantinos Christoforou to represent Cyprus. Constantinos performed 4 songs with the winning song being chosen by a 50/50 mixture of Televoters and a professional jury consisting of Ruslana, Evridiki and others. Constantinos was joined by Elena Patroklou, who already represented Cyprus in 1991 where she ended up 9th with her song S.O.S.

Constantinos was born in the town of Limassol, Cyprus. At the age of seventeen, he became the first Cypriot artist to achieve triple platinum sales, with an album that was recorded in Cyprus and not in Athens where the core of the music industry is located. Constantinos has already represented Cyprus twice - solo in 1996 with 'Mono Gia Mas" and as lead singer of the group ONE with "Gimme" in 2002. In 2003, Constantinos started his solo career with the album I Agapi Sou Paei (‘Love Becomes You’). He immediately reached No. 1 in the Greek airplay charts and the album reached gold sales in Cyprus. Constantinos is also a very successful songwriter and lyricist and he has composed songs for the most famous Greek singers. In September 2004 he released his second solo album ‘Idiotiki Parastasi’ (‘Private Show’). The album became gold in Cyprus immediately and is a huge radio hit in Greece.

Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Cyprus was represented by Lisa Andreas and the song "Stronger Every Minute", with music and English lyric by Mike Connaris, and Greek lyric by Matheson Bayley and Andrew Adams. The Cypriot National Final was held on February 17, 2004, hosted by Loukas Hamatsos who participated in the 1990 and 1993 Cypriot finals,with the winner being chosen by an "expert" jury (40%) and televoting (60%).On January 25, an internal jury selected 10 songs that made it to the final.

At Eurovision, Lisa Andreas came in 5th place in the semi-final,behind Serbia & Montenegro, Ukraine, Greece and Albania. Andreas repeated this success in the final, coming in equal 5th with Sweden, behind Ukraine, Serbia & Montenegro, Greece and Turkey, its equal highest placing ever to date in the Eurovision Song Contest (the other times being in 1982 with Anna Vissi and 1997 with Hara&Andreas Constantinou). Cyprus also received its most ever points in one contest (170 points from 32 countries).

Geography of Cyprus

Cyprus is an island in the Eastern Basin of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean (after the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia) and the world's 81st largest island by area. It is located south of Asia Minor, the Anatolian peninsula of the Asian (or Eurasian) mainland (part of Turkey), so it may be included in Western Asia or the Middle East: Cyprus is close to Western Asia, Southern Europe, and Northern Africa, and has had lengthy periods of mainly Greek and intermittent Anatolian, Levantine, Byzantine, Turkish, and Western European influence. It is sometimes included in Europe, and the Republic of Cyprus has been a member state of the European Union since 1 May 2004.

Cyprus is 240 kilometres long and 100 km (62 mi) wide, with Turkey 75 km (47 mi) to the north. Other neighbouring territories include Syria and Lebanon to the east (105 km and 108 km (67 mi), respectively), Israel 200 km (124 mi) to the southeast, Egypt 380 km (236 mi) to the south, and Greece to the west-northwest: 280 km (174 mi) to the small Dodecanesian island of Kastellórizo (Meyísti), 400 km (249 mi) to Rhodes, and 800 km (497 mi) to the Greek mainland.