EUROPE: Cyprus bumped up to 13th after Eurovision recount

Cyprus and its Eurovision entry ‘Replay’ by Greek singer Tamta benefited by two places after a recount of the final results of the song contest held in Israel’s Tel Aviv.

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Cyprus initially finished 15th but moved up two positions after EBU announced that due to human error caused by the confusion created after the Belarus jury was expelled from the competition for revealing their vote during the preliminary round.

In an announcement, the EBU said that the error was discovered after a standard reevaluation procedure of the result.

“This had no impact on the calculation of the audience vote for the 41 participating countries, while the winner and the first four songs of the Contest remain the same. In order to respect both the artists and the EBU members involved, we wish to correct the final results according to the rules,” said EBU.

The 2019 Eurovision Song contest held on Saturday saw Dutch singer Duncan Lawrence take first price. Laurence and his Coldplay-style ballad Arcade beat 25 other nations to be named 2019 champion, taking over the reins from Netta, who won for Israel in 2018 with Toy.

On a night of controversies, Cyprus and Greece were booed after awarding each other 12 points, while a controversial appearance from Pop queen Madonna fired discussions amongst viewers on social media.

Madonna’s appearance left audiences around the world with a bitter taste as commentators found that she had sung out of tune, while sparking a political debate after two of her dancers on stage had placed a Palestinian and Israeli flag on their backs.

The gesture was ill perceived by the Israeli organisers who expressed their discontent with Madonna as “the flags were not produced at any stage of the rehearsals”.

Iceland’s Hatari had also waved Palestinian scarfs during the announcement of the results which saw them finish tenth.

Meanwhile, Tamta was criticized for looking like a Madonna wannabe with her risqué outfit.