In the last couple of weeks Cyprus was in a battle with neighbouring country Greece when it came down to their national selection process. The conclusion of this disagreement is that Cyprus will have a televised national selection show upcoming January and they will not use the “Fame Story” format as previously stated.
What was the disagreement about?
The national broadcaster of Cyprus, CyBC, announced earlier this year that it would work together with “Star Greece”, a Greek channel that broadcasts Greek as well as foreign shows. Cyprus wanted to use the Fame Story format to find their next representative for the upcoming contest in Malmö (Sweden). Greece was against this plan, because Star Greece broadcasts from Greek territory, and it is against the rules of the contest to choose contestants in another country.
Because of this situation the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), decided on changing the rules of the national selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest. The new regulations you can read below.
“The organisation of the national selection of each EBU member must not violate the exclusivity of the rights of the participants of the other participating broadcasters of the other countries. Each national selection of a representative for Eurovision should be undertaken and organised under the exclusive control of each participating broadcaster. The organisation and production may not be subcontracted, except with the prior approval of the EBU. The national selections must be organised and televised nationally in the participating broadcaster’s country and on the participating broadcaster’s own EBU member channel.”
What do the new EBU regulations mean for Cyprus?
Because of the new regulations of the EBU Cyprus is now pushed to organize their own format to choose their upcoming Eurovision representative. Cyprus has chosen to have a televised national selection in their capital city, Nicosia, upcoming January. The Fame Story idea is now abandoned, but the artists that do well in Fame Story can compete in the Cypriot national selection upcoming January.
Eurovision 2023
In the Eurovision Song Contest of 2023 in Liverpool (UK) Cyprus was represented by Andrew Lambrou with the song “Break a Broken Heart”. Andrew ended in 7th place (of 16) in Semi-final 2, and eventually came in 12th (of 26) in the Grand Final.