Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998

Eurovision Song Contest 1998
Country	Cyprus
National selection
Selection process	National final
Selection date(s)	11 March 1998
Selected entrant	Michalis Hatzigiannis
Selected song	"Genesis"
Selected songwriter(s)	Michalis Hatzigiannis Zenon Zindilis
Finals performance
Final result	11th, 37 points
Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1997 • 1998 • 1999►

Cyprus competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998, held on 9 May 1998 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) organised a public selection process to determine its entry for the contest. Eight songs competed in the national final, held on 11 March 1998, where a jury chose the winning song. Michalis Hatzigiannis with the song "Genesis" received the most votes and was selected to represent the nation in the contest. Hatzigiannis performed 17th at the international contest and at the close of the voting process, finished in 11th place, receiving 37 points from 10 countries.

Background

Main article: Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 1998 contest, Cyprus had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 16 times since its first entry in 1981. ^[1] It then participated yearly, only missing the 1988 contest when its selected song "Thimame" by Yiannis Dimitrou was disqualified for being previously released. ^[2] To this point, the country's best placing was fifth, which it 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. ^[1] Cyprus' least successful result was in 1986 when it placed last with the song "Tora zo" by Elpida, receiving only four points in total. ^[1]

Before Eurovision

National final

Michalis Hatzigiannis (pictured in 2011) represented Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 with the song "Genesis".

The national final was held on 11 March 1998 at the Monte Caputo Nightclub in Limassol, hosted by Marina Maleni and Loukas Hamatsos. An 11 member committee assembled by CyBC selected eight songs to compete in the final out of the 53 entries received by the broadcaster. ^[3] The winner of the final was chosen by an expert jury.

Results of the national final – 11 March 1998 ^[3]

Draw	Song	Artist	Songwriter(s)	Points	Place
1	Elena	"Magissa mira" (Μάγισσα μοίρα)	Koralia Schiza	38	8
2	Annie	"Ligi hara gia tin Mona" (Λίγη χαρά για τη Μόνα)	Giannis Savvidis, Michalis Michailidis	108	3
3	Nasia Trachonitou	"Prepi na xehastis" (Πρέπει να ξεχαστείς)	Giorgos Adamou, Christiana Alonefti	52	7
4	Dalida Mitzi	"Nichta min pis" (‎Νύχτα μην πεις)	Andreas Karanikolas	95	6
5	Kyriakos Zymboulakis	"Oneiro" (Όνειρο)	Kyriakos Zymboulakis	98	5
6	Alexandros Panayi & Marlain Angelidou	"Fterougisma" (Φτερούγισμα)	Giorgos Kallis, Constantinos Odysseos	123	2
7	Giorgos Stamataris	"Onomase me" (Ονόμασε με)	Andreas Gerolemou, Ioannis Hatzigeorgiou	108	3
8	Michalis Hatzigiannis	"Genesis" (Γένεσις)	Michalis Hatzigiannis, Zenon Zindilis	158	1

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 took place at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom on 9 May 1998. ^[4] According to the Eurovision rules, the 25-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. ^[5] Following confirmation of the participant list, the running order for the contest was decided by a draw held on 13 November 1998; Cyprus was assigned position 17, following United Kingdom and preceding Netherlands. ^{[5] [4]} Heading into the final of the contest, BBC reported that bookmakers ranked the entry joint 20th out of the 25 entries. ^[6]

Voting

The same voting system in use since 1975 was again implemented for the contest, with each country providing 1–8, 10 and 12 points to their 10 highest-ranking songs, with countries not allowed to vote for themselves. ^[5] For the first time however, the contest results were determined predominantly by public voting via telephone, following a successful trial among five countries the previous year; an eight-member back-up jury was also assembled in case technical failures rendered the telephone votes invalid. ^{[5] [7] [8]} The use of televoting caused phone lines in Cyprus to be jammed as viewers attempted to cast their votes using the 60 phone lines assigned to the contest. Despite receiving over 150,000 calls for votes, only 5,000 were registered during the five-minute voting window. ^[9]

Points awarded to Cyprus [10] Score Country 12 points   Greece 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points   Slovakia 4 points   Croatia   Portugal   Romania 3 points   United Kingdom 2 points   Belgium 1 point   Hungary   Israel   Malta

Points awarded by Cyprus [10] Score Country 12 points   Greece 10 points   Israel 8 points   United Kingdom 7 points   Croatia 6 points   Belgium 5 points   Malta 4 points   Spain 3 points   Norway 2 points   Portugal 1 point   France

References

1. "History by Country: Cyprus". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
2. O'Connor 2010, p. 212.
3. "Diagwnismos Tragoydioy Eurovision" (in Greek). Cyprus News Agency. 2 February 1998. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
4. "Birmingham 1998–Eurovision Song Contest". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 2 January 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
5. "Rules of the 43rd Eurovision Song Contest, 1998" (PDF). European Broadcasting Union. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 January 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
6. "The bookies' favourites". BBC News. 8 May 1998. Archived from the original on 1 November 2002. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
7. Wright, Lisa (11 May 2018). "Dana, Imaani and Ulrika: When Eurovision last came to Britain". British Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 21 March 2021.
8. Roxburgh 2020, pp. 341–346.
9. "Eurovision phone farce". Cyprus Mail . 12 May 1998. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
10. "Results of Birmingham 1998". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.

Further reading

• O'Connor, John Kennedy (2010). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History (2nd ed.). London: Carlton Books. ISBN   978-1-84732-521-1.

• Roxburgh, Gordon (2020). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. Four: The 1990s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. ISBN   978-1-84583-163-9.