# Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Cyprus was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 with the song "Tha 'nai erotas" (Θα'ναι έρωτας), composed by Giorgos Kallis, with lyrics by Andreas Karanikolas; the song was performed by Marlain Angelidou. The Cypriot participating broadcaster, the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC), selected the entry through a national final titled Diagonismós Tragoudioú Giourovízion 1999: Epilogí Tis Kypriakís Symmetochís.
The national final saw nine songs compete for the opportunity to represent the nation. The event was held on 9 February 1999 and the winner decided by a panel of media personalities. Angelidou with the song "Tha 'nai erotas" received the most votes and was selected to represent Cyprus in the contest. Angelidou performed 14th at the contest on 29 May 1999 and at the close of the voting process, finished in 22nd place, receiving just two points in total, both from the United Kingdom. The result was seen as unexpected as Cyprus had been a favourite to win the contest in betting odds.

## Background

Prior to the 1999 contest, the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Cyprus 17 times since its first entry in 1981. It then participated yearly, only missing the 1988 contest when its selected song "Thimame", performed by Yiannis Dimitrou was disqualified for being previously released. By the 1999 contest, its best placing was fifth, achieved twice: in 1982 with the song "Mono i agapi" performed by Anna Vissi and in 1997 with "Mana mou" performed by Hara and Andreas Constantinou. Its least successful result was in 1986 when it placed last with the song "Tora zo" by Elpida, receiving four points in total.

## Before Eurovision
### National final
#### Competing entries

The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) opened a submission period for songs until 18 December 1998. By the end of the submission period, 66 entries had been submitted. On 17 January 1999, in radio room one of the CyBC studios, a 14-member jury listened to the received submissions and chose ten songs to compete in the national final. The selection was done in two stages: first the songs were listened to and the jury voted and selected 30 entries; and from those 30 entries, the ten competing entries for the national final were selected. Prior to the final, "24 chronia" was withdrawn by its composer, Aristos Moschovakis, with production problems cited as the reason.
Competing entries :
| Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) |
| Christina Saranti | "Adeio fengari" (Άδειο φεγγάρι) | Michalis Konstantinidis, Christos Konstantinidis, Kyriakos Pastidis |
| Dimos Beke | "Tha sou edina oli mou ti zoi" (Θα σου έδινα όλη μου τη ζωή) | Dimos Beke, Zinonas Zindilis |
| Elena Tsolaki | "Aspro fengari" (Άσπρο φεγγάρι) | Marios Takousis, Poly Georgiou Takousi |
| Giorgos Gavriel | "Poios erotas glykos" (Ποιος έρωτας γλυκός) | Michalis Antoniou, Christos Christofi |
| Giorgos Stamataris | "Maria" (Μαρία) | Giannos Savvidis, Vicky Efstathiou |
| Lucas Christodolou | "An gyriseis" (Αν γυρίσεις) | Theos Kallias, Elena Pravitsioti |
| Marlain Angelidou | "Tha'nai erotas" (Θα’ναι έρωτας) | Giorgos Kallis, Andreas Karanikolas |
| Riana Athanasiou | "Moni" (Μόνη) | Gavriel Savva |
| Stelios Constantas | "Methysmeno fengari" (Μεθυσμένο φεγγάρι) | Loukas Xenofontos, Tonia Hatzikosti |

#### Final

The final was broadcast live at 21:00 EET on RIK 1 on 9 February 1999 in a show titled Diagonismós Tragoudioú Giourovízion 1999: Epilogí Tis Kypriakís Symmetochís (Διαγωνισμός Τραγουδιού Γιουροβίζιον 1999: Επιλογή Της Κυπριακής Συμμετοχής). The contest was held at the Monte Caputo Nightclub in Limassol, and was hosted by Loukas Hamatsos. The winner was chosen by a panel of media personalities, one of whom was Thanos Kalliris, who had represented Greece in 1987 as part of Bang.
The winning song was "Tha 'nai erotas", composed by George Kallis, with lyrics by Andreas Karanicolas, and performed by Marlain Angelidou. Angelidou had previously attempted to represent Cyprus the previous year as part of a duo, placing second behind Michalis Hatzigiannis. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Hatzigiannis, Konstantina, and Spyros Spyrakos were also featured during the show.
Final – 9 February 1999 :
| Draw | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
| 1 | Marlain Angelidou | "Tha'nai erotas" (Θα’ναι έρωτας) | 225 | 1 |
| 2 | Riana Athanasiou | "Moni" (Μόνη) | 107 | 7 |
| 3 | Elena Tsolaki | "Aspro fengari" (Άσπρο φεγγάρι) | 116 | 5 |
| 4 | Christina Saranti | "Adeio fengari" (Άδειο φεγγάρι) | 102 | 8 |
| 5 | Stelios Constantas | "Methysmeno fengari" (Μεθυσμένο φεγγάρι) | 125 | 4 |
| 6 | Giorgos Stamataris | "Maria" (Μαρία) | 143 | 3 |
| 7 | Lucas Christodolou | "An gyriseis" (Αν γυρίσεις) | 113 | 6 |
| 8 | Giorgos Gavriel | "Poios erotas glykos" (Ποιος έρωτας γλυκός) | 88 | 9 |
| 9 | Dimos Beke | "Tha sou edina oli mou ti zoi" (Θα σου έδινα όλη μου τη ζωή) | 178 | 2 |

### Promotion

To promote the entry, an event was held at Zoo nightclub in Cyprus where Angelidou and her team were greeted by media while the music video of "Tha 'nai erotas" played in the background. The song was commercially released by record label Malvina Music.

## At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 took place at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, Israel on 29 May 1999. According to Eurovision rules, the 23-country participant list for the contest was composed of: the winning country from the previous year's contest; the 17 countries, other than the previous year's winner, which had obtained the highest average number of points over the last five contests; and any countries which had not participated in the previous year's content. Cyprus was one of the 17 countries with the highest average scores, and thus were permitted to participate. The running order for the contest was decided by a draw held on 17 November 1998; Cyprus was assigned position 14, following Iceland and preceding Sweden.
Prior to the contest, the nation had reached first place in betting odds in April, which prompted a Cypriot delegation representative to respond at a CyBC press conference, saying they would prefer to not win due to the costs of hosting the next year and would instead prefer to place a "respectable second". By late May, however, the British company Ladbrokes had shown Cyprus falling to a predicted sixth place. Despite the odds, the entry only received two points, both from United Kingdom, placing 22nd in the field of 23, beating only Spain. Andrew Adamides of Cyprus Mail wrote in a summary of the contest that Cyprus' poor placing is thought to be attributed to this being the first contest where an entry could be performed in any language (Cyprus' entry was performed in Greek, while the winning song, in English) and possibly due to political voting. For her performance, Angelidou was joined by two backing vocalists: Nicole Jones and Lina Kawar.

### Voting

The same voting system in use since 1975 was again implemented for this event, with each country providing 1–8, 10 and 12 points to the ten highest-ranking songs as determined by a selected jury or the viewing public through televoting, with countries not allowed to vote for themselves. This was the second contest to feature widespread public voting, and Cyprus opted to implement this method to determine which countries would receive their points, with an 8-member back-up jury assembled in case technical failures rendered the telephone votes invalid. Around 15,000 calls were registered in Cyprus in total during the five-minute voting window, which determined the points awarded by Cyprus to the other participating nations.