Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000

Finals performanceFinal result21st, 8 pointsCyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest

◄1999 •

2000

• 2002►

Cyprus competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000, held on 13 May 2000 at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) organised a public selection process to determine its entry for the contest. 11 songs competed in the national final, held on 16 February 2000, where a panel selected the winning song. The duo Voice, consisting of Christina Argyri and Alexandros Panayi, received the most votes with their song "Nomiza" and were selected to represent the nation in the contest. Voice performed 11th at the international contest and at the close of the voting process, finished in 21st place, receiving eight points.

Background

Prior to the 2000 contest, Cyprus had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 18 times since its first entry in 1981.^[1] It then participated yearly, only missing the 1988 contest when its selected song "Thimame" by Yiannis Dimitrou was disqualified for being previously released.^[2] To this point, the country's best placing was fifth, which it achieved twice: in 1982 with the song "Mono i agapi" performed by Anna Vissi and in 1997 with "Mana mou" performed by Hara and Andreas Constantinou.^[1] Cyprus' least successful result was in 1986 when it placed last with the song "Tora zo" by Elpida, receiving only four points in total.^[1]

Before Eurovision

National final

To select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2000, CyBC hosted a national final on 16 February 2000 at the Nea Leoforos Nightclub in Limassol,^[3] hosted by Loukas Hamatsos. 11 songs competed with the winning song chosen by a 21-member jury, which included Eurovision 1999 winner Charlotte Nilsson and Lina Kawar who was a backing singer for Cyprus in Eurovision 1997 and 1999.^[4][5][6] The event was broadcast live via satellite as well as on the CyBC 2 television station and radio Channel 2. During the performance, Nilsson was also featured as a guest singer.^[3] At the close of voting, "Nomiza" performed by Christina Argyri and Alexandros Panayi received the most votes and was selected as the Cypriot entry.^[5]

Results of the national final – 16 February 2000^[4][6]

Draw	Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)	Points	Place
1	Marina Solonos	"Eimai akoma edo"	Marina Solonos	148	3
2	Annie	"Na m'agapas"	Kyriakos Petousis	131	5
3	Maria Amman	"Fones"	Thalia Kounouni	87	10
4	Marilia Perikleous and Demetris Mouhtaroudis	"Trikymia"	Demetris Mouhtaroudis, Kyriakos Pastidis	93	9
5	Chrysanthos Chrysanthou	"An"	Chrysanthos Chrysantho	125	7
6	Alexandros Panayi and Christina Argyri	"Nomiza"	Alexandros Panayi	225	1
7	Lefki Stylianou	"Antio loipon"	Lefki Stylianou	94	8
8	Antonia Orthanou	"Sti gi eirini"	Dimitris Konstantinou, Niki Spyropoulou	100	7
9	Marian Georgiou and Kostas Kountos	"Paradeisos"	Marian Georgiou	145	4
10	Giorgos Gavriel	"Volt"	Giorgos Gavriel	122	6
11	Haroula Pirta	"Ki'akoma s'agapo"	Giorgos Adamou, Giorgos Serdaris	184	2

Detailed Jury Votes
Draw	Song	Jury 1	Jury 2	Jury 3	Jury 4	Jury 5	Jury 6	Jury 7	Jury 8	Jury 9	Jury 10	Jury 11	Jury 12	Jury 13	Jury 14	Jury 15	Jury 16	Jury 17	Jury 18	Jury 19	Jury 20	Jury 21	Total
1	"Eimai akoma edo"	12	9	10	7	12	4	1	7	8	9	3	9	6	2	5	9	10	3	4	10	8	148
2	"Na m'agapas"	4	8	5	8	8	3	12	8	5	7	5	10	7	1	6	10	2	8	8	3	3	131
3	"Fones"	1	4	3	2	2	5	3	1	6	3	8	5	5	4	7	2	9	5	1	5	6	87
4	"Trikymia"	3	1	2	3	6	1	2	3	9	2	2	4	8	7	10	3	3	1	6	8	9	93
5	"An"	5	3	1	1	3	7	6	2	3	5	7	1	4	5	3	1	7	2	3	2	7	125
6	"Nomiza"	10	12	12	12	10	10	10	10	7	12	12	12	10	12	12	12	4	10	12	12	12	225
7	"Antio loipon"	6	5	6	6	4	6	4	6	4	1	4	3	1	9	1	4	1	6	7	6	4	94
8	"Sti gi eirini"	2	6	4	5	9	2	5	9	12	4	6	2	2	3	8	5	5	7	2	1	1	100
9	"Paradeisos"	7	7	9	4	7	9	8	4	2	10	10	6	12	10	2	8	6	9	9	4	2	145
10	"Volt"	8	2	7	9	1	8	7	5	1	6	1	8	9	6	4	7	12	4	5	7	5	122
11	"Ki'akoma s'agapo"	9	10	8	10	5	12	9	12	10	8	9	7	3	8	9	6	8	12	10	9	10	184

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 took place at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, on 13 May 2000.^[7] According to the Eurovision rules, the 24-country participant list for the contest was composed of: the winning country from the previous year's contest; the 18 countries, other than the previous year's winner, which had obtained the highest average number of points over the last five contests; and any countries which had not participated in the previous year's content. Cyprus was one of the 18 countries with the highest average scores, and thus were permitted to participate. The running order for the contest was decided by a draw; Cyprus was assigned position 11, following Belgium and preceding Iceland.^[7] The performance included backing vocals by George Gabriel, Lina Kawar, Christina Lazarou, and Michael Moschou.^[8] At the end of the voting, Cyprus received only 8 points, placing 21st in the field of 24 countries. Due to poor results, Cyprus was not permitted to take part in the 2001 Contest the next year; however, they were re-admitted for the following year.

Voting

The same voting system in use since 1975 was again implemented for this event, with each country providing 1–8, 10 and 12 points to the ten highest-ranking songs as determined by a selected jury or the viewing public through televoting, with countries not allowed to vote for themselves. This was the third contest to feature widespread public voting, and Cyprus opted to implement this method to determine which countries would receive their points, with an 8-member back-up jury assembled in case technical failures rendered the telephone votes invalid. The Cypriot televoting awarded its 12 points to Russia.

References

Bibliography

• O'Connor, John Kennedy (2010). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History (2nd ed.). London: Carlton Books. ISBN 978-1-84732-521-1.