To say the least, there were lots of interesting events leading up to Cyprus finally selecting Eleni Fouriera to represent them in Lisbon at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Firstly there was talk of a national final with the Cypriot national broadcaster, CyBC, using a talent show type format to select an artist who would perform a song written by the Greek/Swedish songwriter, Alex P, in Lisbon
Then rumours circulated that Cyprus were trying to recruit Greece’s 2005 winning artist Helena Paparizou for the contest. That deal appeared to fall through, perhaps because Helena still has dreams of representing her birth country, Sweden.
Finally, the Cypriot’s confirmed on 1 February that an internal selection had been made. In a move that will definitely shore up those douze points from Greece, Eleni Foureira is performing for Cyprus in 2018.
Eleni Foureira has had an interesting run within the Greek national final system starting in 2010 with her song called “Kivotos tou Noe”. Seems her non-selection over the years has lead her to venture to some distant cousins for a little Eurovision help.
Eleni’s song is called “Fuego” and it was indeed written by Alex P. He has some Eurovision pedigree having written for Sarbel (2007), Aysel and Arash (2009) and Ivi Adamou (2012), not to mention songs for Enrique Iglesias, Jenifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.
Fuego was released on 2 March. It’s a med-pop banger, pure and simple. An uptempo dance number with strong ethnic undertones that has obvious Eurovision appeal. The official film clip is basically Eleni in a few different J. Lo/Beyoncé outfits appearing in disjointed scenes of her laying about with pineapples and bananas and setting a car on fire to mention just a few. However, I'm sure if Eleni brings anything like that performance to the stage in Lisbon (minus the fruit) she will do very well. Greece might end up ruing their decision not to select her.