Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2004 The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey, following the country's victory at the with the song " Everyway That I Can" by Sertab Erener. Organised by the European B ...

with the song "Stronger Every Minute" performed by

Lisa Andreas Lisa Andreas (born Lisa Large; 22 December 1987) is an English singer. She represented Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 and came fifth with her performance of "Stronger Every Minute". At the age of 16, Andreas was the youngest singer ...

. The song was written by Mike Connaris, who had twice written a runner up in Eurovision selection process for the United Kingdom. The Cypriot entry for the 2004 contest in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey was decided on 17 February 2004, through a 10-song national final organised by the

Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation ( gr, Ραδιοφωνικό Ίδρυμα Κύπρου , tr, Kıbrıs Radyo Yayın Kurumu), or CyBC (ΡΙΚ, KRYK), is Cyprus' public broadcasting service. It transmits island-wide on four radio and two domestic ...

(CyBC). To promote the entry, the song was released as a

CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any s ...

and Andreas performed the song alongside other Eurovision entrants of the year at a show in London. Cyprus was drawn to compete 14th in the contest's semi-final, held on 12 May 2004 and placed fifth, qualifying for the 15 May final. At the final, the nation's entry was performed 21st on the night and placed fifth out of the 24 competing entries with 170 points.

Background

Prior to the , Cyprus had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 20 times since its first entry in 1981. It then participated yearly, only missing the 1988 contest when its selected song "Thimame" by was disqualified for being previously released, and the 2001 contest when it was relegated. To this point, the country's best placing was fifth, which it achieved twice: in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., Un ...

with the song "Mono i agapi" performed by

Anna Vissi Anna Vissi ( el, Άννα Βίσση, , ; born 20 December 1957), is a Greek Cypriot singer and songwriter. She studied music at conservatories and performed locally before moving to the professional scene in Athens, in 1973, where she signed ...

and in with "Mana mou" performed by Hara and Andreas Constantinou. Cyprus' least successful result was in when it placed last with the song "Tora zo" by Elpida, receiving only four points in total.

Before Eurovision

National final

The Cypriot broadcaster opted to hold a national final to select the nation's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 15 October 2003 and 2 January 2004. All artists and composers were required to have Cypriot nationality. At the conclusion of the deadline, 62 entries were received by CyBC. Ten entries were then selected by a five-member selection committee and announced on 7 February 2004. All competing entries were English-language songs. The national final took place on 17 February 2004 at the Pavilion Night Club in Nicosia, hosted by Loukas Hamatsos. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show featured guest performances by 2004 Israeli Eurovision entrant

David D'Or David D'Or ( he, דוד ד'אור; born David Nehaisi on October 2, 1965) is an Israeli singer, composer, and songwriter. A countertenor with a vocal range of more than four octaves, he is a three-time winner of the Israeli "Singer of the Year" ...

and 2004 Lithuanian Eurovision entrants

Linas and Simona Linas and Simona was a duo, which represented Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. With 26 points they placed 16th in the semifinal and could not participate in the final. However, they befriended Ruslana, the winner of the Eurovision 2 ...

. "Stronger Every Minute", a

power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.J. M. C ...

performed by

, was selected by a combination of votes from public televoting (60%) and jury panel (40%). Andreas, then sixteen years old at the time, was the youngest participant to take part in the 2004 contest. Born in Gillingham in the United Kingdom, her mother hailed from Cyprus. "Stronger Every Minute" was written by Mike Connaris, who had twice written a runner up in Eurovision selection processes for the United Kingdom. While the song initially contained lyrics in Greek, it was decided by the Cypriot delegation to have the song performed only in English at Eurovision.

Promotion

To promote the entry, the song was released as a CD single. Andreas also performed "Stronger Every Minute" on ''Popshow'' for a Eurovision Party at CC club in London alongside Eurovision participants of the past and present.

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 took place at

Abdi İpekçi Arena Abdi İpekçi Arena, formerly known as Abdi İpekçi Sports Complex, was a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul, Turkey, situated just outside the ancient city walls, in Yedikule. History Designed in 1979 ...

, Turkey, and consisted of a

semi-final A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...

on 12 May and the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

on 15 May 2004. For the first time, a semi-final round was introduced to accommodate the influx of nations that wanted to compete in the contest. As Cyprus had not finished in the top 11 at the 2003 Contest the previous year, its song had to compete in the semi-final. According to the Eurovision rules, all participating countries, except the host nation and the " Big Four", consisting of , , and the , were required to qualify from the semi-final to compete for the final, although the top 10 countries from the semi-final progress to the final. Cyprus was set to compete in the

of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 fourteenth, following and preceding .

Performances

The Cypriot performance saw Andreas on stage alone with no backing vocalists or dancers. Cyprus qualified to the final, placing fifth in the semi-final and scoring 149 points. In the final, the country performed 21st, following the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and preceding

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and placed fifth, scoring 170 points. This placement allowed Cyprus to automatically qualify for the final of the next year's contest.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Cyprus in the semi-final and final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, as well as by the nation on both occasions. Voting during the two shows involved each country awarding a set of points from 1–8, 10 and 12 based on results from their respective public televote. In the semi-final, Cyprus placed fifth with a total of 149 points, including the top 12 points from Greece and Monaco. In the final, the nation's 170 points included 12 points from Greece. Of the 35 other countries competing, all but three awarded points to "Stronger Every Minute". For both the semi-final and final, Cyprus awarded its 12 points to Greece.

Points awarded to Cyprus

Points awarded by Cyprus

References

Bibliography

* {{Eurovision Song Contest 2004

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pri ...