Countdown to Tbilisi: Songs from Cyprus

14 September 2017 at 18:00 CEST
Cyprus was present at the very first edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 and has participated a total of eight times. Today we look back at their Junior Eurovision entries from over the years.

In the first edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest back in 2003, Theodora Rafti represented the Cyprus with the song Mia Efhi finishing 14th. She was only 11 years old at the time but that was just the start of her career. She currently is a soprano and a member of the Opera Fuoco Opera company in Paris from 2017 to 2019. In the meantime, she is studying for her Master’s Degree in Opera at Vienna’s University of Music & Performing Arts.

In 2005 Cyprus was disqualified because their entry was too similar to another song however the Cypriot viewers could watch the show and vote for the other participants. When the results of the entries disappointed for a couple of years, Cyprus decided to withdraw from the contest in 2009 but returned in 2014. Sophia Patsalides had the honour of representing her country with I Pio Omorfi Mera, a song sung partially in English. Even though she was seen as that years’ favourite, she ended up in ninth place. 

In total Cyprus has finished in the top ten on four occasions and in 2008 the country hosted the sixth edition of Junior Eurovision in Limassol. We will know soon who will represent Cyprus at the 2017 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Tbilisi, Georgia. In the meantime, check out this video of past participants from Cyprus!