Cyprus was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1987 with the song "Aspro mavro" (Άσπρο μαύρο), written by Andreas Papapavlou, with lyrics by Maria Papapavlou, and performed by Alexia. The Cypriot participating broadcaster, the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC), internally selected its entry for the contest.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) announced it would participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 1987 on 4 November 1986, and on the same day opened a submission period for Cypriot artists and composers to submit songs until 10 January 1987.[1] By the end of the submission period, 61 submissions had been received.[2]
The internal selection was held on 26 January 1987 in the CyBC offices in Nicosia.[3][4] The results were decided by an 18-member jury consisting of CyBC employees and people in the music industry.[3][5][6] The selection consisted of several stages and lasted over ten hours, from around 9:00 EET until 19:20 EET. In the last stage, only two songs remained and each jury member had one vote to give to one song.[6] The results of the internal selection were announced immediately after the internal selection in a news broadcast.[2]
Internal selection final stage - 26 January 1987[4][5][6]
On the night of the final Alexia performed seventeenth in the running order, following Germany and preceding Finland. At the close of voting "Aspro mavro" had received 80 points, placing Cyprus 7th out of 22 countries. The Cypriot jury awarded its 12 points to Greece.[7]
