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Cyprus was to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1988. The Cypriot participating broadcaster, the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC), internally selected its entry for the contest, which was the song "Thimame" (Θυμάμαι), written by John Vickers and Aristos Moschovakis, and performed by Yiannis Dimitrou. On 12 March 1988, the broadcaster announced its withdrawal from the contest, after it was discovered that the entry had broken the rules of the contest by having already participated in the 1984 national final, and not having enough time to find a new entry. Cyprus was drawn to perform second in the contest.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) opened a submission period for composers to submit their entries until 9 January 1988. A total of 56 songs were submitted and on 10 February 1988, from 9:00 EET until 19:00 EET, a 16-member jury listened to the received submissions and chose the winning song.
In the final round of the internal selection, "Thimame", composed by John Vickers and Aristos Moschovakis, and performed by Yiannis Dimitrou won with 14 out of 16 votes (the other 2 votes went to the second-placing song). "Thimame" had taken part in the 1984 national final, and had also been sent to the CyBC twice for two different years.
Not long after the song was announced to the public, newspapers were reporting that the song had broken the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest and of the Cypriot internal selection. The rules of the Cypriot internal selection stated that submitted songs must not have been heard by the public prior to 31 March 1988, and "Thimame" had been aired to the public as part of the 1984 national final. The full lyrics had also been published in magazines. Additionally, the composers of a song must not be known by the internal selection jury panel during the selection procedure, and while the composers of the songs had not been revealed during the 1984 Cypriot national final, they were published in newspapers from the time and this could have broken the impartiality rule of the jury panel, had any of the jury members seen those newspaper articles. It was later revealed that jury members had brought this up during the selection procedure, but the chairman of the jury had ignored their concerns.
CyBC held unsuccessful meetings on 26 February and 28 February to resolve the problems with "Thimame", but were unable to reach a conclusion. On 11 March 1988, CyBC held another meeting and on 12 March 1988 announced that "Thimame" had broken the rules of the internal selection and withdrew the song. The regulations of the internal selection meant that the second placed song could not be used as a back-up entry, and as there was no sufficient time to find a new entry, CyBC withdrew from the Eurovision Song Contest 1988.
At Eurovision
Although Cyprus had withdrawn from the contest by 12 March 1988, there were several instances after the withdrawal where other sources believed Cyprus was still to be participating. Cyprus was drawn to perform second and was advertised in the Radio Times' information about the preview programme of the contest. "Thimame" also appears as song number two in accordance to its initial performance draw, on the record release Melodi Grand Prix 1988 – the compilation disc of the contest's entries.
Roxburgh, Gordon (2017). Songs For Europe - The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Three: The 1980s. UK: Telos Publishing. pp. 336–350. ISBN978-1-84583-118-9.
Melodi Grand Prix 1988 (CD) (in Norwegian). Continental Records. 1988. CCCD 10015.
Cyprus