She was labelled as the Beyoncé of Europe, because of her dance moves and her ‘hairography’, Albanian-Greek pop star Eleni Foureira gave Cyprus their best ever result, placing 2nd in the grand final. In this episode of the Aftermath we look back at Cyprus at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 and how they rose up the betting odds in the week of the live shows.
In the run up to the grand final, we wrote about how Cyprus were favourite to win the entire contest, this would have been their first ever victory, however Israel ended up winning it. Cyprus placed 2nd in semi final 1 with 262 points, and they also came 2nd in the grand final with 436, which is a record number of points for the island.
Muchas Gracias Espania
In this interview that Eleni gave a few days after her runner up performance, she was seen to be looking over the moon and happy with her performance and thanking Spain (among other countries) for giving 12 points to her. The highest Cyprus had ever reached before now was 5th, so it was great to see Eleni reacting in this way to just making her country so proud.
“I’m so happy. This is crazy. Thank you so much. Being second in Eurovision is like you win. So, for me, muchas gracias, Espana (to Spain, one of the juries that gave her 12 points), and everybody who votes for me. Like this is a dream. This is the best position ever Cyprus have in the history. So, I feel like a winner. Thank you so much. I cannot explain how amazing I feel right now”.
She’s not greek, she’s Albanian from both parents.
Hi John
Her nationality is Greek-Albanian as she was born in Albania herself. I conducted my in-depth research before putting this article together. Hope this clears up any misconceptions for you