Cyprus: CyBC officially confirms that Sandro will not return in Eurovision 2021

Cyprus: CyBC officially confirms that Sandro will not return in Eurovision 2021
Monday, 01 June 2020

  • After last week's reports came the official announcement by the Cypriot broadcaster that Sandro Nicolas won't be coming back in next year's Eurovision Song Contest. 

    Following the reports from local media, CyBC announced officially today that their collaboration with Sandro has reached to an end and the country will be in search for a new Eurovision hopeful next year. 

     

     

     

     

    Specifically the Cypriot broadcaster revealed its Eurovision 2021 intentions through the following post: 

    Although the post confirms that Cyprus will be present in next year's edition and clears out that Sandro won't be among the returning acts in Eurovision 2021 the Cypriot broadcaster hasn't yet cleared  the format it will be using in order to select its ESC 2021 hopeful. 

    This year, CyBC internally selected Sandro Nicolas to fly the flag in Rotterdam with his entry Running, written by Alfie Arcuri, Sebastian Rickards, Octavian Rasinariu and Sandro himself while the productionwas work of Teo DK.

    Once the Eurovision song contest was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic the question that arouse was what will happen with this year’s unlucky contestants that didn’t eventually were deprived the right to complete their Eurovision 2020 journey in Rotterdam. The EBU through a clear statement outruled the ESC 2020 songs ,by not allowing the  ESC 2020 entries to compete in 2021. Therefore the broadcasters were left to decide whether they will return with the same acts or not.

     

    Cyprus in Eurovision

    Cyprus debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981 with the group Island, achieving an honorable 6th placing in Dublin. Aphrodite’s island has been represented by some of the biggest names in the Greek and Cypriot music industry: Anna Vissi (1982), Michalis Hatzigiannis (1998), Evridiki (1992,1994,2007), Ivi Adamou (2012), Despina Olympiou (2013), etc.

    The country achieved its best Eurovision result this year when it placed 2nd with Eleni Foureira’s Fuego. The Greek famous star was selected internally to fly the Cypriot flag at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon. Eleni’s explosive performanc on  the Altice Arena stage blew away Europe which boosted the country to its highest position ever in the competiton.

    Last year internally selected Tamta, want to make a strong repeat of last year’s success with her song enttitled , Replay, and through her energetic performance at Expo Tel Aviv accomplished a 13th place for Cyprus, keeping the country on the left side of the final scoreboard.