Voices are raised in Cyprus against the song chosen to represent the island at Eurovision. For Orthodox religious, The devil by Elena Tsagrinou symbolizes the worship of the devil.
The song chosen to represent Cyprus on Eurovision sparked controversy on the Mediterranean island on Friday, after an anonymous call threatening to “burn down the building” of public radio and television station CyBC and harsh criticism from religious education teachers .
The song, titled The devil (The devil in Spanish) and performed by Greek singer Elena Tsagrinou, was broadcast Wednesday for the first time by CyBC in the Mediterranean country, the majority of whose inhabitants are Orthodox Christians.
Angry religious education teachers
CyBC informed police of an anonymous call threatening to burn the broadcaster’s building in protest, the Cypriot News Agency reported on Friday. Police are investigating the incident.
In addition, a union of high school religious education teachers issued a statement Friday urging CyBC to drop the song. He expressed his “horror” at the lyrics of the song selected for the European competition scheduled for May, arguing that the singer “praised Satan, dedicated her life to him and loved him”.
“Eternal struggle between good and evil”
He still wondered about the criteria used by CyBC to “select songs of such low quality”:
“Why is it so difficult to select artists from our island (…) who can promote our culture and our musical tradition in international music competitions?” Asks the union.
CyBC responded to the attacks by explaining that the song was misunderstood and was inspired by the “eternal struggle between good and evil”. Cyprus finished second at Eurovision Song Contest in 2018, its best ranking.
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