There’s another Aussie competing at this year’s Eurovision
At just 17, Sydney-born singer and dancer Silia Kapsis will be the youngest Australian ever to set foot on the Eurovision stage when she competes in Sweden in May. The twist in the tale? She won’t be representing Australia.
Kapsis, who was born in Australia to Cypriot singer dad Giorgos Kapsis, and Greek lawyer (and former dancer) mum Despina Saivanidis, will instead be representing Cyprus when she competes at the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Australian singer Silia Kapsis is Eurovision-bound, representing Cyprus.Credit: Monsee Wood
With three national flags to her name, Kapsis says she will proudly fly them all when she lands in the southern Swedish city of Malmo in May. “I’m so happy to be a part of three countries, it’s incredible,” Kapsis says. “To be of Cypriot and Greek roots and to be born and raised in Australia, I’m so very happy. Three beautiful countries.”
But there is a strategic twist to Silia’s magical tale – it is the second time Cyprus has fielded an Australian-Cypriot performer. Last year, 25-year-old Sydney-born Andrew Lambrou performed for Cyprus, delivering them seventh place out of 26 countries who made the competition final. Australia’s entry, Voyager, placed ninth.
The logic behind the Cyprus strategy is sound: with the largest Cypriot population outside of Cyprus and one of the biggest Greek populations outside Greece, Australia represents an unusually rich pool of potential votes for a Eurovision contestant from either of those countries.
Like Russia-Azerbaijan and Norway-Sweden-Denmark-Finland-Iceland, Greece and Cyprus already form a tight voting bloc in Eurovision. That means Cyprus and Greece have a track record of scoring each other higher than other competitors. In a competition where the jury votes are adjusted by television viewer votes, Cyprus is gambling a slice of the Australian audience will join that bloc.
“It might help at Eurovision, of course,” Kapsis says. “[Three nationalities] is a great thing to have, especially when it’s to do with Eurovision. Greece and Cyprus have a good connection, and Australia. We’re all pretty close and pretty connected.”
Kapsis is a young performer, even by Eurovision’s standards. She will be 17 years and five months old when she performs in May. Isaiah Firebrace, who represented Australia in 2017, was just 16 days older than Kapsis will be when he competed.
“It’s an amazing opportunity, especially for [someone] my age,” Kapsis says. “I’m never going to live this down. And it’s a huge thing for me, especially because I’ve been [singing and dancing] since I was four. It is what I was born to do and I love it.”
Though she still has a little over a month before the competition begins, the road to Eurovision for Kapsis began last December, working on the choreography of her Eurovision song Liar in Los Angeles. Her creative team then moved to Greece to begin rehearsals.
Kapsis is representing Cyprus in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest.Credit: Monsee Wood
“It’s begun,” Kapsis says. “It began before the song came out. It began a long, long time ago. So I just want to be there. I just want to do it. I’m excited. I’m really excited just to go there and feel it and enjoy it and have fun and smash it.”
Kapsis has some formidable competition to face in Sweden including Australia’s entry, electronic duo Electric Fields, aka vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding and keyboard player Michael Ross, and the early favourites Bambie Thug (Ireland), Gåte (Norway), Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil (Ukraine) and Nebulossa (Spain).
Kapsis says she is buzzed to meet Malta’s Sarah Bonnici (“she’s an amazing dancer”), Luxembourg’s Tali (“she’s amazing, great voice and very dance-y”) and Austria’s Kaleen (“it’s a good song, you can hear it anywhere you go”). “Those three songs are dance-y and I love pop,” Kapsis says. “Those types of Eurovision countries always pull me in. I love watching people who move on the stage.”
But, she adds, winning is not everything. “Of course, everyone wants to win, but it is not something that you should be focusing on,” Kapsis says. “What I am focusing on is, you’re representing a country, and you want to make them proud.
“You’ve got to work really hard, and you’ve got to try your best and whatever place you get, you get,” Kapsis adds. “But you know that you’ve tried your best on the stage, and you’re happy and your country’s proud of you. That’s the most important thing to me. But it would be lovely to get first place, or the top 10.”
SBS will air the Eurovision Song Contest on May 7, 9 and 11.
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