Cyprus qualified for the Eurovision final for a fifth consecutive year as the juries and the public gave a vote of confidence to Tamta’s “Replay” at Tuesday’s semi final.
Tamta appeared first on the night and impressed the crowd with her song written by Greek-Swedish songwriter Alex Papaconstantinou.
Last year’s winner Israeli singer Netta Barzilai opened the night, emerging from a giant lucky cat sculpture to perform a souped-up version of her song “Toy”.
Diva Dana International, who won Eurovision for Israel in 1998, was another local star to make a warmly received comeback.
? CRYING AT THE DANA INTERNATIONAL KISS CAM. #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/3cjaZC3gGU
— BBC Eurovision?? (@bbceurovision) May 14, 2019
France, Spain and Israel’s representatives also made brief appearances during Tuesday’s live telecast.
All three automatically qualify for Saturday’s final, along with acts from Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
The 10 acts that qualified to participate in the final on Saturday are:
- Greece – Katerine Duska
- Belarus – Zena
- Serbia – Nevena Bozovic
- Cyprus – Tamta
- Estonia – Victor Crone
- Czech Republic – Lake Malawi
- Australia – Kate Miller-Heidke
- Iceland – Hatari
- San Marino – Serhat
- Slovenia – Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl
⚡️ 10 participants are on their way to the Grand Final on Saturday!
Here’s a recap of all of last night’s first Semi-Final performances.#DareToDream #Eurovisionhttps://t.co/5Nn9wmlxK0
— Eurovision (@Eurovision) May 15, 2019
How the result was decided
The final result has been determined through a combination of jury and televotes. The televote took place tonight during the live broadcast of the show and the jury cast their vote while watching the second Dress Rehearsal that was held on Monday, May 13.
The 17 countries participating in the first Semi-Final, as well as France, Spain and Israel, could vote in the show. The ten finalists will participate in the Grand Final this Saturday alongside the ten countries who will qualify in the second Semi-Final this Thursday and the six pre-qualified countries, the ‘Big Five’ and host country Israel.
How can you watch Eurovision?
The second semi-final takes place on Thursday May 16 and the grand final on Saturday May 18.
Both the semi-finals and the final start at 22:00 (Cyprus time) and will be broadcast live in Cyprus on RIK1.
Those who live abroad and want to watch Eurovision on RIK can do it via RIK SAT.
The contest can be watched live worldwide on Eurovision’s official YouTube channel.
Cyprus at the Eurovision Song Contest
Having made its Eurovision debut in 1981, Cyprus is the nation with the most Eurovision appearances yet to secure a victory.
The country has participated in every contest since, with the exception of 1988, 2001 and 2014, when in the midst of the Cypriot financial crisis, it withdraw for economic reasons.
While Cyprus secured seven top 11 finishes in the 1990s, its form dipped as the contest entered its semi-final era. Cyprus failed to qualify in six out of eight occasions between 2006 and 2013 and withdraw in 2014.
However, since their return in 2015, the island has qualified for the grand final every single time. Last year, Eleni Foureira sent this Cypriot momentum to a new peak with a record second-place finish.
Read more:
https://in-cyprus.com/cyprus-to-open-first-eurovision-semi-final-on-tuesday/
