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, and performed by Marlain Angelidou. The Cypriot participating broadcaster, the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC), selected its entry through a national final. Nine songs competed in the national final, held on 9 February 1999, where a panel of high-profile media personalities selected the winning song. Marlain 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 international contest and at the close of the voting process, finished in 22nd place, receiving just two points 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, 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 when its selected song "Thimame" performed by Yiannis Dimitrou was disqualified for being previously released. To this point, its best placing was fifth, achieved twice: with the song "Mono i agapi" performed by Anna Vissi and with "Mana mou" performed by Hara and Andreas Constantinou. Its least successful result was when it placed last with the song "Tora zo" by Elpida, receiving only four points in total.

Before Eurovision

Diagonismós Tragoudioú Giourovízion 1999: Epilogí Tis Kypriakís Symmetochís

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. "24 chronia" was withdrawn by its composer, Aristos Moschovakis, prior to the final. Production problems were cited as the reason for the song's withdrawal.

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 high-profile media personalities, one of whom was Thanos Kalliris, who had represented 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 as part of a duo, placing second behind Michalis Hatzigiannis.

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 and preceding. 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 nation's points.