Cyprus

media type="youtube" key="IGiFfskmvnA" height="344" width="425" The artist representing Cyprus in the [|Eurovision] song contest in 2009 is Christina Metaxa. The 17 year old was born in the town of [|Limassol]on the south coast of the island of Cyprus. Christina has a very close relationship with her brother, Nikolas Metaxas, who wrote and composed the song for her, and actually wrote it about her (see song information below). Christina has a great amount of musical skill, performing talent, and all around creativity. While still in school, she has participated in numerous singing competitions and performances. She is also an talented stage actor, having taken on one of the leading roles in a Cyprus production of the musical, //Mamma Mia.// She is athletically gifted as well as musically talented, dancing as a member of [|Diastasis]young dancers group, who are one of the most famous cultural groups in Cyprus. If that weren't enough, Christina is developing her literary talents as an emerging author. She Writes poetry and children's stories and is in fact about to publish her first children's book and her first poetic collection. She also is a skilled painter who says she does it, "to relax" when she isn't doing one of the other hundred creative pursuits. Christina has composed two songs and written lyrics for them, although her brother wrote the song //Firefly// for the [|Eurovision]song contest. Although already extremely accomplished and gifted, she sees participating in [|Eurovision]to be one of the biggest challenges of her life so far. She hopes to make her family and country proud saying, //“I want to show the world that teenagers have the strength to set targets and to follow their inner light despite the difficulties and negative challenges of today’s world.”// Christina was voted to represent her country by twice the amount of the second closest Cyprus contestant, receiving 12,309 [|televotes].
 * Artist Biography:**

Song Information:
Christina Metaxa tried taking her country up the ladder in the 2009 Eurovision by singing one her songs Firefly. According to [|Eurovision] website, the song firefly has been composed by her brother. Apparently Metaxa was very touched by her brothers decision to write her a song. The song is composed and sung in English.The [|Eurovision] website gives a little write up on what the song means. Firefly is a song that talks about the importance of having faith in our dreams, the importance of finding the light we have inside of us and of having the strength to take the necessary risks to reach our dreams even if we have to look a bit different than the crowds. The reactions for this song were mixed, some people found this song very beautiful, serene and proclaimed that the lyrics were absolutely fantastic, while a majority of people are against this song and the outcome of their reactions towards the song is pretty bad. There were also some [|claims] made on how the instrumentals in this song were a rip off from the song warning by Incubus. Also Cyprus is known to be in bad terms with the other European countries except for Greece and frankly they were the only ones that gave Cyprus 12 points for this song in the Eurovision and no one else. The song starts off with a piano riff and I think it sounds a lot like Incubus's song [|Warning]'. Following the piano riff, Christina starts singing and then a minute into the song the guitarists starts to play his instrument and then slowly the bass kicks in. A few seconds after the bass starts playing, the drummer starts his share of work and the song is in full flow at this point and also at approximately 2minutes 20 seconds in to the song, the band stops playing and they all start clapping.There are also some effects used in the song by the pianist. this gave the song a very modern pop feel. If we had put this song into a genre it would fall in somewhere between pop and alternative music.


 * Narrative:** According to the [|Eurovision] website, Cyprus picked Christina Metaxa and her song Firefly for the Eurovision contest this year. Christina had won a show where the entry was chosen via a televote in a fifteen-minute voting window after everyone had performed.  She had double the votes of the song that placed second in that contest. Since Cyprus did not make it to the finals last year, a lot of pressure is put on Christina to make her country proud in this years Eurovision contest in Moscow.

History:
=== Cyprus first started participating in the [|Eurovision] contest in 1981 with a song called "Monika" by the artist Island. This year will be their 28th year in the competition. Cyprus has never won first place in the Eurovision contest but has placed 5th four times. Cyprus has participated in the Eurovision contest every year since 1981 accept in 1988 and 2001. In 1988 Cyprus withdrew its entry after a Cyprus broadcast station determined that the song entry was illegible. In 2001 Cyprus did not qualify to compete based on low scores. Cyprus is a small but strong country with strong connection to Greek life and culture. Therefore Greece and Cyprus usually give each other the most points or votes. Cyprus has given and received the most points from Greece. Songs entered by Cyprus have been composed mostly in English and Greek and on some occasion French and Italian. Even though Turkish is one of the nationally recognized languages of Cyprus they have never entered a song composed in Turkish. ===