Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Cyprus participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Gravity" written by Thomas G:Son. The song will be performed by Hovig, who was selected by the Cypriot broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) in October 2016 to represent Cyprus at the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine. The Cypriot song, "Gravity", was presented to the public on 1 March 2017.

Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Country	Cyprus
National selection
Selection process	Internal Selection
Selection date(s)	Artist: 21 October 2016 Song: 1 March 2017
Selected entrant	Hovig
Selected song	"Gravity"
Selected songwriter(s)	Thomas G:Son
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (5th, 164 points)
Final result	21st, 68 points
Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2016 • 2017 • 2018►

Cyprus was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2017. Performing during the show in position 15, "Gravity" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 13 May.

Background

Main article: Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2017 contest, Cyprus had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-three times since their debut in 1981.[1] The nation's highest placing in the contest was fifth, which they achieved three times: in 1982 with the song "Mono I Agapi" performed by Anna Vissi, in 1997 with "Mana Mou" performed by Hara and Andreas Constantinou, and 2004 with "Stronger Every Minute" performed by Lisa Andreas. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Cyprus had featured in six finals. Cyprus' least successful result in the final has been last place, which they achieved in 1986 with the song "Tora Zo" performed by Elpida. The country managed to qualify in 2016 represented by the band Minus One with their song "Alter Ego" and ended 21st in the final out of 26 entries.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

The Cypriot broadcaster CyBC confirmed on 8 August 2016 their intention to participate in the 2017 edition. It was later announced that, like the year before, an internal selection would be used.[2] On 21 October 2016, it was announced that Hovig would be the Cypriot entrant with a song written by Thomas G:Son, while Haris Savva would be in charge of the staging. The Cypriot song for the contest, "Gravity", was presented to the public on 1 March 2017.

Promotion

Hovig made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Gravity" as the Cypriot Eurovision entry. On 8 April, he performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.[3] On 15 April, Hovig performed during the Eurovision Spain Pre-Party, which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain.[4]

At Eurovision

Hovig during a press meet and greet

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[5] On 31 January 2017, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Cyprus was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2017, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[6]

Once all the competing songs for the 2017 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Cyprus was set to perform in position 15, following the entry from the Czech Republic and before the entry from Armenia.[7]

Semi-final

Hovig took part in technical rehearsals on 30 April and 4 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May. This included the jury show on 8 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.

At the end of the show, Cyprus was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Cyprus placed fifth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 164 points: 103 points from the televoting and 61 points from the juries.

Points awarded to Cyprus

Points awarded to Cyprus (Semi-final 1)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Armenia  Greece			Georgia  Moldova  Poland	Australia  Finland  Latvia  United Kingdom
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Montenegro	Belgium  Czech Republic  Iceland  Slovenia  Sweden	Albania  Italy  Portugal
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Armenia		Belgium  Sweden	Finland	Greece
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Czech Republic  Georgia	Iceland	Italy  United Kingdom

Points awarded to Cyprus (final)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Armenia  Greece
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
		Bulgaria	Georgia  Hungary	Montenegro
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Greece			Armenia
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Belgium  Finland	Georgia		Sweden	Portugal

Points awarded by Cyprus

Semi-final 1 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Greece  Greece 10 points  Azerbaijan  Portugal 8 points  Armenia  Sweden 7 points  Moldova  Australia 6 points  Portugal  Finland 5 points  Sweden  Armenia 4 points  Belgium  Azerbaijan 3 points  Poland  Belgium 2 points  Australia  Poland 1 point  Georgia  Czech Republic

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Greece  Greece 10 points  Bulgaria  Italy 8 points  Italy  Portugal 7 points  Portugal  Bulgaria 6 points  Moldova  Sweden 5 points  Sweden  United Kingdom 4 points  Romania  Australia 3 points  France  Belgium 2 points  Belgium  France 1 point  Armenia  Azerbaijan

Final

Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the reverse order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Cyprus was drawn to compete in the second half.

Voting on the Cypriot jury were: - Stavros Stavrou - Tassos Evaggelou - Eleni Sidera - Stella Georgiadou - Yiannis Toumazis

Split voting results from Cyprus (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		S. Stavrou	T. Evaggelou	E. Sidera	S. Georgiadou	Y. Toumazis	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Sweden	3	2	3	2	5	3	8	6	5
02	Georgia	12	17	14	14	6	14		10	1
03	Australia	6	3	2	8	8	4	7	9	2
04	Albania	15	16	16	16	17	16		17
05	Belgium	10	9	9	10	3	8	3	7	4
06	Montenegro	17	13	17	17	16	17		16
07	Finland	5	10	4	7	4	5	6	12
08	Azerbaijan	4	5	7	9	12	7	4	2	10
09	Portugal	1	7	1	3	1	2	10	5	6
10	Greece	2	1	6	1	2	1	12	1	12
11	Poland	8	4	12	11	13	9	2	8	3
12	Moldova	16	11	11	4	15	12		4	7
13	Iceland	9	12	10	15	7	11		13
14	Czech Republic	13	8	8	13	9	10	1	15
15	Cyprus
16	Armenia	7	6	5	6	10	6	5	3	8
17	Slovenia	14	14	13	5	14	13		14
18	Latvia	11	15	15	12	11	15		11

Split voting results from Cyprus (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		S. Stavrou	T. Evaggelou	E. Sidera	S. Georgiadou	Y. Toumazis	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Israel	14	6	16	14	13	11		15
02	Poland	21	10	14	19	19	19		17
03	Belarus	16	24	17	17	25	21		22
04	Austria	9	15	8	18	20	15		19
05	Armenia	15	13	7	20	10	12		10	1
06	Netherlands	18	23	24	4	7	17		18
07	Moldova	25	14	18	6	11	16		5	6
08	Hungary	12	4	9	24	16	13		12
09	Italy	1	5	3	2	4	2	10	3	8
10	Denmark	7	16	13	12	21	14		24
11	Portugal	3	9	1	9	3	3	8	4	7
12	Azerbaijan	10	8	10	13	17	10	1	11
13	Croatia	24	25	25	21	18	25		14
14	Australia	11	7	4	11	14	7	4	13
15	Greece	2	1	6	1	2	1	12	1	12
16	Spain	19	20	21	10	12	18		23
17	Norway	20	21	23	23	23	24		21
18	United Kingdom	4	12	2	7	8	6	5	16
19	Cyprus
20	Romania	23	22	20	15	9	20		7	4
21	Germany	17	19	19	22	24	22		25
22	Ukraine	22	18	22	25	22	23		20
23	Belgium	13	17	11	8	1	8	3	9	2
24	Sweden	6	3	5	3	15	5	6	6	5
25	Bulgaria	5	2	12	5	6	4	7	2	10
26	France	8	11	15	16	5	9	2	8	3

See also

• Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Eurovision Song Contest 2017

References

1. "Cyprus | Country profile | Eurovision Song Contest". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
2. Jiandani, Sanjay (19 October 2016). "Cyprus CyBC goes internal for Eurovision 2017 announcement on 21 October". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
3. Jordan, Paul (29 March 2017). "Eurovision in Concert sets a new record with 33 acts". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
4. Fuster, Luis (1 April 2017). "MADRID CALLING! 19 ACTS WILL TAKE PART IN EUROVISION SPAIN PRE-PARTY". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
5. Jordan, Paul (25 January 2017). "Semi-Final Allocation draw to take place in Kyiv". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
6. Jordan, Paul (31 January 2017). "Results of the Semi-Final Allocation Draw". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
7. Jordan, Paul (31 March 2017). "Semi-Final running order for Eurovision 2017 revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 12 April 2017.