Cyprus was represented at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1981 The Eurovision Song Contest 1981 was the 26th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the with the song "What's Another Year" performed by Johnny Logan. Organised by the Euro ...

with the song "Monika", composed by Doros Georgiades, with lyrics by Stavros Sideras, and performed by the group Island. The Cypriot participating broadcaster, the

Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (; ), or CyBC (; ), is Cyprus' public broadcasting service. It transmits island-wide on four radio and two domestic television channels, and uses one satellite channel for the Cypriot diaspora. It also transmits o ...

(CyBC), internally selected its entry for the contest. This was the first-ever entry from Cyprus in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

The

(CyBC) opened a submission period for Cypriot artists and composers to submit songs until 18 January 1981, with the deadline later being extended to 21 January 1981. Each artist or composer was only allowed to submit up to two entries each. By the end of the submission period, CyBC had received 22 entries, of which four were invalid. The internal selection took place on 29 January 1981 and the results were decided by a 7-member professional jury who listened to recordings of each submitted entry and unanimously chose "Monika" as the winning song. To ensure anonymity of the composers of the non-winning submitted songs, the tapes of all non-winning entries were destroyed after the selection was complete. Thus, very little is known about any other competing entries besides the eventual winner. It is also unknown who the performer(s) of "Monika" were on the submitted recording. "Monika" was also submitted to the Greek 1980 selection but was rejected.

Artist selection

Doros Georgiades and Stavros Sideras, along with CyBC, searched for two women and two men to perform the song at the Eurovision Song Contest. The chosen performers were Areti Kasapi Charalambidou,

Alexia Vassiliou Alexia Vassiliou (; born 5 February 1964) is a Cypriot singer-songwriter. She has represented her country in the Eurovision contest in 1981 and 1987. She became a refugee at age ten and still gives concerts for the United Nations High Commissione ...

, Aristos Moschovakis, and Roger Lee. Along with Doros Georgiades, these five members formed the group Island.

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Island performed eighteenth in the running order, following and preceding . At the close of voting "Monika" had received 69 points, placing Cyprus in 6th of the 20 participating countries. The Cypriot jury awarded its 12 points to .

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1981

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1981

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...