Cyprus are not messing around at Eurovision. After teasing us for weeks about their Eurovision 2019 act, CYBC have finally confirmed the name on everyone’s lips. Tamta will be flying the Cypriot flag in Tel Aviv.
The Georgian-Greek singer (full name Tamta Goduadze) has been rumoured to be under consideration to represent Greece in previous years. But much like with Eleni Foureira, Cyprus have stolen their thunder.
It’s hardly been Eurovision’s best kept secret, of course. Local news has been hinting Tamta was selected as early as November — when she topped our Cypriot wishlist.
And a drip feed of hints since then all but confirmed that Tamta was the chosen one to succeed Eleni. And with the team Tamta has behind her, there’s no doubt that Cyprus is in it to win it again.
Who is Tamta?
Tamta was born and raised in Georgia, but moved to Greece aged 21. There, she took part in Greek Idol, finishing in 2nd place. But she’s certainly not come off second best since then.
With 4 studio albums (including a Best Of) and multiple top ten hits, Tamta is easily one of the most successful and influential artists in the Greek pop music industry.
Her talents aren’t just as a pop star either. She’s been a judge on X Factor Georgia and X Factor Greece, and starred in musicals such as Rent and Cabaret. A multi-talent indeed.
Tamta to sing “Replay”, Sacha Jean-Baptiste involved
Also confirmed is that, as previously reported, the song is called “Replay”. It includes lyrics such as “You need my love on replay” and “Replay replay replay yeah”.
“Replay” has been written by Greek-Swedish hitmaker Alex P, the man behind Eleni Fouriera’s “Fuego” and Ivi Amadou’s “La La Love”. He will be assisted by Sweden-based songwriters Teddy Skye, Viktor Svensson, Kristoffer “Bonn” Fogelmark and Albin Nedler.
Also confirmed in CYBC’s press release is that Sacha Jean-Baptiste will be working on the song’s staging. After staging two Eurovision runner-ups in a row (with “Beautiful Mess” and “Fuego”), will this be third year lucky for SJB?
Given Tamta can own a stage like the performance above at the MAD Video Music Awards too, we’re sure that she’s going to bring a show in Tel Aviv.
Are you excited to see Tamta confirmed for Eurovision 2019? Can Cyprus make it another successful year at Eurovision? Let us know all your thoughts below.
So so so happy for Cyprus!
I believe Tamta is an amazing performer and she should defilitely go to Eurovision. And now it’s her time to shine!
I’m very optimistic about this!
Looking forward to the song!
Always brave to sing in your native language, i have much respect, but sad reality is usually doesn’t win votes 🙁 nice song, go Cyprus!! much love to you from Australia <3
the song has not be released yet..and it wont be in greek but in english
Im so excited. I was disappointed last year when Tamta, Cyprus first choice, rejected fuego….. it wasnt so strong for her…..Replay must be very special so Tamta accepted. I hope….. Bravo Cyprus for choosing Tamta. My favourite Tamtas songs are: ILIOUS KAI THALASSES, KOITA ME, AGAPISE ME. Maybe it can be a repeat of Greece 2004 and 2005. In any case, no matter the result, Tamta will go well and have an unforgettable stage presentation. After so many weak and disappointing Greek entries the last 10 years at least we have Cyprus to be excited the last 2 years.
Yeyyy. Fantastic to see a broadcaster trying their best to win the ESC. Well done Cyprus. 🙂
It’s always so hard to compete after your country was the runner-up. Good luck Tamta.
I love Tamta, and I like how Cyprus is already becoming a country to watch after what has been a spotty track record in Eurovision. But I hope this doesn’t become the norm, I like Tamta and Eleni, but Cyprus has perfectly capable singers as well. I’m perfectly fine with them sending Greek singers every once in a while but they shouldn’t forget the singers from their own country.
Like i get that Eurovision is a show which mainly attracts pop artists etc but like why can’t Cyprus send a good vocalist
Like this 17 year old girl Marina Jianwurth blew people away in the Greek voice (despite not winning) and she is from Cyprus also. Write a good song for her and have her get a shot.
But i guess good vocals aren’t really what people are looking for in ESC?
https://youtu.be/V3sJSgLoIWM
Tamta was amazing on Idols. Sheis a good live singer.
It’s about the song, not the vocals. They’re important but not the main thing. Eleni did fine, so did Minus One and John. The artist should be able to sing the song properly, we don’t need more jury baits.
If you see Tamta at MAD VMA 2018 with Czech Republic’s Mikolas Josef (watch?v=UvfpE7mzOx4), then you’ll understand how far can go with staging! I’m very looking forward to her staging!
I’m gonna try to reserve judgment until we actually hear the song, but everything about Cyprus ’19 is sounding like Bulgaria ’18. Right after placing runner-up, they try to outdo themselves with the same exact format and build an extreme amount of hype only to disappoint. I hope it won’t happen but history repeats.
Bulgaria was soooo trying to hype up their entyry last year. Revealing the lyrics, releasing teaser image after teaser image and waiting to be the last ones to reveal their song (Georgia stole their thunder) and I think Cyprus will fall in the same boat. But Bones wasn’t dissapointing and I don’t think Replay will be dissapointing, they just need to make it stand out and not be too safe.
Seriously I dont understand how people can even call literally 3 posts/”hints” an “extreme amount of hype”. Bulgaria used to post lyrics and moods of literally every song in their submission process, they revealed their actual submission process to the tiniest detail and people actually compare this to the minimal “hype” Cyprus is building (like you commenting on this article on the hype Cyprus is supposedly building up even though Tamta was revealed straight way with no tricks and clues). On a further note, esc fans love patterns and occasionally compare entries to previous ones but despite all the cases… Read more »
I’m not a big fan of her songs, but that one in the first video is pretty good.
Surprise! (Said no-one ever).
Good choice.
Well, they’re using the same strategy that worked very well for them last year, I can’t blame Cyprus for that. I couldn’t care less about “Fuego” as a song when it was released, but the final product was undeniably engaging. Let’s see if they can replay (zing) its success. Tamta will have to bring her very best, because it will be tough to follow Eleni’s presence.
i feel that she will be this years Saara Aalto….huge hype and meh result
difference is saara alto is an awful performer before during and after eurovision,why she even was selected for finland is a mystery to me.
Saara Alto sing better live then Tamta. She selected because 2nd place in The X factor UK.Bur song in national final was noot so good, and I think with Domino she would be on left side of table.
Hugely disagree. Saara is an amazing performer with an amazing voice, she was just given terrible songs to work with and Yle’s stage presentation was a mess.
I agrre we had hype about Saara Aalto in 2018, Greta in 2016, Edurne in 2015, Kati in 2011…and all flop so hard
Lyrics like “Replay replay replay yeah.” Um… I’ll trust the Cypriot team — they did right by audiences last year — but I’m worried.
Tamta is a good option, but for Eurovision 2020 /2021. It’s obvious they won’t repeat the success of Eleni, Tamta is vocally lower and she doesn’t have Eleni’s charisma, so copy the same formula (euro-diva with Alex P’s song and Sacha Jean-Baptiste’s staging…) it’s a mistake. I have good vibes with Replay, but they should’ve chosen Vangelis Kakouriotis to stand out from 2018
Remember when everyone thought Fuego was generic and everyone changed their mind because of the stage performance? Bet it’s going to be the same for 2019!
in 2018 we had intesting voting of juries and tv viewers. Israel 3rd with 212 and Cyprus 5th with 183 points from juries (in differemt yeasr that kind of song would be out of TOP 10 with juries points and max collect 80 to 90 points example Cyprus 12 th and Greece 18 th with juries in 2012. ) Juries gave 271 points to Austria, Germany 204, France 114 and only 59 to Italy. Italy and France had simillar message about war….and France (one of Esc fan favorites and one of favorites on betting odds flop so hard in televote… Read more »
Sweden all around…
Also: “yeah yeah replay” is very similar to “yeah yeah yeh fuego”. So original.
It’s “replay replay replay yeah”, but it’s clear that this will be the final part of the chorus and then a drop will follow… predictable Swedish songwriting.
Yeah yeah replay
promising
Shaping up to be a great year performance wise.
Probably means the overall winner will be dull, but still it will be a good show nonetheless
Didn’t it mention somewhere that the lyrics are ‘yeah yeah replay’? Original.
I’m happy because I love her and I’ve been waiting for see hitting the Eurovision stage for a while. I really hope she does well and now Greece, you better give me Kostas Martakis.
It is funny, because in Czech “Tamta” means “That one over there”, so it will be like… Who’s representing Cyprus this year? – Tamta. – Yeah, but what’s her name? 😀
Polish lad here, the same situation in our language 😉
That’s like a variation of the Who’s On First routine in English.
Haha! in Ukrainian ‘Tam-to” means the same but with”O” at the end lol
Mark my words!
Flop is coming
Three words: TRYING TOO HARD.
Didn’t work for Bulgaria in Lisbon and definitely won’t work with Cyprus in Tel Aviv.
For now I’m hitting SKIP, not “Replay”. Hopefully the song will prove me wrong.
Really untalented artist. Her only concern is clothes and hair style. I have followed her career as a Greek, have really low expectations.
The funny thing is, she was my wish list for Greece so I guess it’s a sort of dream come true that Tamta is going to Eurovision… For Cyprus.
Either way, I’m sure Tamta is going to slay it in Tel Aviv.
Same, I put her on my wishlist for the 2016 contest for Greece! But Cyprus has a higher budget so she went with them.
I don t see Cyprus in TOP 3 next year with similar song, staging…like this year, and Tamta don t have Eleni charisma. And we will have many copies of Fuego son and singers who looks like Eleni in Israel. And Cyprus woul be out of TOP 3 , if Armenia send example Iveta with LoveWave
but but but Iveta came 7th
In 2016 Eleni and Fuego would be out of TOP 10, and Netta Toy out of TOP 5.And Iveta woul had better result in 2018 instead 2016
With Iveta in 2018 my prediction TOP 5 result would be
1. Israel 2.Austria 3. Germany 4. Italy 5. Armenia (she woul dcollect Russia votes from ex URRS )
Yeah, no. Iveta came 7th despite performing LAST… that’s the best she could do.
We’ll surely have a bop but I wish there was some remote Cypriot involvement in this… the team will once again be 100% imported!
I can get why San Marino would need to get people from outside the country but for the likes of Cyprus which surely is not short of local talent, there shouldn’t be an excuse of not having a Cypriot national be involve, even as a producer or composer.
I feel you. There have to be Cypriot songwriters and singers which want do do Eurovision!
Nice! I’ve got a feeling we’re gonna have lots of strong female divas this year atter netta and eleni. We’ve already got Srbuk and Tamta so far and those are like the only two acts announced. That gives a greater chance to bands, groups or a guy to snatch the trophy.
Good choice but it’s difficult following a sucess like Fuego. Lightning doesn’t strike twice.
But who knows? Good luck!
Fantastic news, I’m so excited!
Tamta for the win! Go Cyprus!
What a choice for Cyprus! Looking forward to hearing the song! After Eleni, it seems Cybc wants to carry on their fantastic result from last year!
So I guess in the eurovision final the top 10 will be :
Cyprus, greece, israel, italy, spain, azerbaijan, armenia and georgia. The other 2 countries, good luck!
Now santa, Mixalis xatzigiannis writing a song for greece. Maybe for yianna terzi.
Why these 10 countries?
Only a guess. Just a feeling.
oh hell no. Nobody wants Yianna again
She had a great song. I don’t mind if she will try again, and the right way. (Staging). Don’t forget that this year there were a lot of good songs. Hopping next year will be a be like that.
I am really so happy for this but as a fan of Tamta i am concerned. She needs to have a killer song cause what Eleni did last year is very hard to beat. Although it’s difficult, i would love to see Cyprus winning.
Wow.
With all the international team to help Cyprus, is there still some level of Cypriot involvement in the production of the song?
ask the same thing to the other contestants
This Swedish producer has greek origin and he wrote many songs for Helena Paparizou , Anna Vissi and many others . He wrote also Greece’s entry for 2007 and Cyprus’entry for 2012 and 2018 .
It seems like there isn’t, and I often think that I am the only one to bother, which is totally annoying…
I AM SO BEYOND SHOOK
Wig? Snatched.
Brows? Evaporated.
Eurovision 2020? Cyprus.
Hotel? Trivago.
And I, for one, am shocked. Who saw this one coming?
In all seriousness, she’s a good choice. Looking forward to seeing her bring it for Cyprus!
This is exciting!
Tamta for Nicosia or Limassol Eurovision 2020 Cyprus. Good luck too for Greece & Georgia. ??????????
I literally screamed when this article appeared in my notifications. 🙂