Junior Eurovision 2020: Cyprus will not be back in this year's contest

Junior Eurovision 2020: Cyprus will not be back in this year's contest
Thursday, 23 July 2020

  • Cyprus will not be participating in the upcoming Junior Eurovision Song Contest next November in Warsaw, Poland. 

    The island of Aphrodite will not be returning to this year's edtion of Junior Eurovision set to to take place on November 29, in Warsaw. The Head of the Cypriot delegation, Evi Papamichael, has confirmed to local fan media that the country will not be participating in the competition this year. 

    The country hasn't take part in Junior Eurovision since 2017 in Tbilisi, Georgia. 

     

     

    Cyprus in Junior Eurovision 

    Cyprus has entered the Junior Eurovision Song Contest ten times since debuting at the first contest in 2003 with Theodora Rafti and the song 'Mia efhi'. They were forced to withdraw in 2005, as Rena Kiriakidi's 'Tsirko' was said to be too similar to another song. However, the Cypriot viewers were able to watch the show and vote.

    In May 2007, CyBC were announced by the EBU to host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008. They hosted it at the 'Spyros Kyprianou' Athletic Centre in Lemesos on 22 November 2008.

    The country's best result is an eighth place achieved both at the 2004 and 2006 contests with Marios Tofi and the song 'Oneira' and Louis Panagiotou and Christina Christofi and the song 'Agoria koritsia' respectively.

    Cyprus withdrew from the competition in 2010 because of unspecified reasons. Although they were in talks with the EBU to return to the contest in 2013, they eventually did not. In 2014, CyBC announced its return to the competition after a four-year absence, despite withdrawing from the adult contest earlier that year. They were represented by Sophia Patsalides with the song 'I pio omorfi mera' which finished in ninth place out of sixteen participating entries, despite being one of the favourites to win the contest that year.

    Although they withdrew from the contest in 2015 for financial reasons, Cyprus returned in 2016, only to place in the bottom two twice, second-to-last in 2016 with George Michaelides and the song 'Dance Floor' in Valletta, Malta and last in 2017 with Nicole Nicolaou and the song 'I wanna be a star' in Tbilisi, Georgia which is the country's worst result in the contest.