ABSTRACT
The annual Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is a mass-media event that takes place in May in the previous year's winner's country. For Cypriots the ESC provides an important context for negotiating and projecting their European identity, and eventually staging their anticipated relationship to the ideal Europe. Cypriots can be seen to be insecure about their national and cultural identity, while they view European musical sound as homogenous and specific. A widely accepted notion has been growing that the ESC is mostly a political game, a media show which attracts low quality songs and performances. These children had assimilated Greek Cypriot society's understanding that it is because of European political relations and grouping that Greece and Cyprus usually score low marks. Kipros's response shows how Cypriots augment and naturalize such melodramatic feelings. Such attitudes justify the failure of Greek and Cypriot song entries, attributing the failure to national and political alliances which omit Cyprus.
