CyBC have announced that the new Cypriot National Selection will be the Greek talent show, Fame Story, which will air from September to December 2023.
Fame Story, which originally aired on, Greek television channel, ANT1, from 2002 to 2006, will be making a return on the Greek television, Star, for a revival from September to December 2023. It will also air on CyBC in Cyprus. Despite being produced in Greece, by Greek television, for Greek television, CyBC have decided that the show will act as Cyprus’ national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. It will, however, only be an artist selection, with the song following some months later.
The decision to use a Greek television programme to select their Eurovision 2024 artist has raised a few eyebrows as this methodology is pretty much unheard of in Eurovision National Selections. However, the fact Liverpool 2023 saw Greece only giving Cyprus 4 jury points, instead of the expected 12 points, might have something to do with it. This move will ensure that the Cypriot Eurovision 2024 artist will be known in Greece, unlike Andrew Lambrou who was pretty much unheard of in both Greece and Cyprus before Eurovision 2023.
The history of Fame Story as a TV show is a fascinating one, also, and has a surprising Eurovision connection. The show is an adaptation of the international Star Academy franchise, which itself started off life as the Spanish talent show, Operación Triunfo, which Eurovision fans might remember as the Spanish national selection from 2002-04 and 2018-19. In fact Operación Triunfo was created specifically with the purpose of choosing Spain’s Eurovision representative for Tallinn 2002, who ended up being Rosa Lopez, and it just so happened to spin into a multi-million pound international talent show franchise. It became Fame Academy in the United Kingdom, Star Maker in the Netherlands and Star Academy in France, just to name a few of the many adaptations.
So, now Cyprus, through the Greek adaptation of Operación Triunfo, will select their entry for Eurovision 2024. Fame Story is due to begin in September 2023, hosted by Nikos Koklonis, and will run until the end of the year. Cyprus’ song is expected to be released in March 2024.
