Cyprus 2026: Antigoni with ‘Jalla’
I’m slowly making a dent in the review pile and next up it's Cyprus’ turn:
Whilst sections of the fandom are busy cancelling Antigoni less than a week after declaring her their new Queen and 5 Cypriots with way too much time on their hands complain about motorcycle wheelies, on the whole this has landed fairly well and has been slowly and steadily doing decent numbers on Spotify.
This starts very promising and whilst it's harsh to say the rest of it is a let down, 'Jalla' really does find it's gear and stick it. To me, this is just a little too content to slot itself into mild ethno bop territory and not try to push the boat any further, I don't really know why I get that sense because the production does mix things up and we get an even more, all too brief ethnic break. Maybe it's just a me thing but I don't think this comes together in a way to make jurors really stand up and pay attention.
I do think this stacks up however very well against past examples within the genre such as 'Dum Tek Tek' (Turkey 2009) or Cyprus' own Fuego (2018) which it's important to remember was received worse than this and entered the contest 50s + on the exchange. It's not entirely unreasonable to argue if those can get a top 5 why not this but the Eurovision history books are littered with entries of this sort that just don't land as well as possible.
Antigoni is a good performer with charisma and a distinctive, rich voice, betrayed a bit due to the love island tag-remember kids, labels stick with you! We've seen this performed fine already in less than ideal conditions at the Greek national final and Antigoni probably has the budget and backing to ensure one of Cyprus' better stagings which have been quite hit or miss.
There's a strong Balkan/Eastern core base of support for this lead of course by Greece (though those countries are all looking competitive themselves this year) but what will determine Cyprus' position is how 2026-credible this is presented and how the western and Northern European countries treat this.
I don't see any issue in this qualifying and then in the final whilst there's more televote potential seen in my scores below, overall both sides could contribute around 50-75 points is my current guess, a score that in a slightly smaller year is just enough to challenge for a top 10/left hand side result. Stripping out Cyprus' exceptionally good result of Eleni Foureira and dissapointment in Andromache's '22 NQ we have a very consistent 16th, 13th, 16th, 15th for their modern eurovision era girl bops which I think sums up the probabilities here - Possibly higher, possibly lower, but more likely than not in that sort of range.
Personal Rating: 13/20
Staging Potential: 15/20
Televote Potential: 15/20
Jury Potential: 13/20
Track Record: 13/20
Overall Rating 69/100
Early Prediction: Semi Two 3rd-6th, 10th-14th in the final.
Volatility Factor: 4/5 Precedent for positive surprises with this sort of entry but very performance and context dependent. Cypriot support ensures a floor to this.