Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest

History

Türkiye Radyoları, the national radio broadcasting service of Turkey, was one of the founding members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in 1950 along with other twenty-two broadcasting organisations; after beginning regular television broadcasts in December 1971, it would renew its EBU membership on 26 August 1972 fold as Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu (TRT). Its membership in the EBU is possible since Turkey is within the European Broadcasting Area and is a member of the Council of Europe.

As a full member of the EBU, TRT is eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. It had participated in the contest representing Turkey since its in 1975 until the in 2012. TRT televised the contest between and 2012, even during the years in which it did not enter the competition.

1970s

Turkey made its debut at the 1975 contest in Stockholm. did not take part in the contest for "unknown reasons" according to the EBU, but it was later revealed that the withdrawal was in protest of Turkey's debut and their invasion of Cyprus in 1974. TRT organized a to select the first ever Turkish entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest. The final took place on 9 February 1975 in the studios of TRT and was hosted by Bülend Özveren. 106 songs were submitted for the national final. The winning song, "Seninle Bir Dakika" ("A minute with you") by Semiha Yankı, was picked by averaging the ranks from the professional jury and people's jury. At the close of voting during the contest, the song received only three points from and placed last.

In , Greece's entry to the contest aroused controversy due to its subject matter being the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Turkey withdrew from the contest to protest the political background of Greece's entry, called "Panagia mou, panagia mou." Turkey televised the final on 3 April 1976 but censored the Greek entrant's performance. They played a nationalist Turkish song titled "Memleketim" ("My motherland", the Turkish cover of the Yiddish folk song "Rabbi Elimelekh"), which was one of the symbols of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in Turkey.

Turkey did not take part in the contest again until , placing 18th with the song "Sevince" performed by Nazar and Nilüfer.

The was held in Jerusalem. The Turkish entry selected was "Seviyorum" ("I'm in love") by Maria Rita Epik. However, Turkey withdrew from the contest due to pressure from neighboring Arab countries to do so, which arose from the ongoing controversy regarding the status of Jerusalem.

1980s

Turkey participated in the Eurovision Song Contest consistently throughout the 1980s. In , Turkish superstar Ajda Pekkan and the song "Petrol" was selected by TRT through a national final. Pekkan placed 15th with 23 points, including the first ever score 12 points received by Turkey, coming from .

Turkey had their best result (until 1997) in the in Bergen, Norway, when Klips ve Onlar placed ninth with a total of 53 points. The country scored nul points twice in the eighties, first in (shared with ) and later in . Several famous Turkish artists performed for the contest during the 1980s, including Ajda Pekkan, Neco, Candan Erçetin and MFÖ.

1990s

The contest's popularity in Turkey suffered after Kayahan, one of the most famous singers in the country, placed 17th out of 22 participating countries with 21 points. After Kayahan's poor result, Turkey's Eurovision entrants were mostly unknown or amateur singers until .

Şebnem Paker represented the country in two consecutive years. The first time being in where she qualified for the final and placed 12th, and the second in where she placed third, behind the UK and Ireland, with the song "Dinle" ("Listen"), sung in Turkish. This was the first time ever Turkey managed to make it in the top three and also it became the most successful result for the country until its victory in 2003. Şebnem Paker returned to the in 1998, but placed fourth and did not qualify for the contest as the Turkish participant for a third consecutive year. Tüzmen represented the country and placed 14th. Turkey participated throughout all of the 1990s except for the , from which they were relegated due to their 21st-place finish in 1993.

After the free language rule was re-introduced in 1999, the first Turkish entry to be partially sung in English was at the . The same year, Turkey reached the top 10 for a third since 1986, finishing tenth.

2000s and 2010s

In the late 1990s to early 2000s, the contest became one of the most popular events in Turkey as a result of the participation of other Central and Eastern European countries, and Sertab Erener's win in with the song "Everyway That I Can". Following the introduction of televoting in 1998, (initially trialed in 1997 and first implemented in Turkey in 2003), Turkey went on to achieve eight top 10 results in the contest.

"Everyway That I Can" was the first Turkish entry in the contest to be sung completely in English. TRT selected the entry through an internal selection mainly organised by OGAE Turkey.

The 2004 contest was held in the Abdi Ipekci Arena, with the first-ever semi-final held on 12 May, followed by the final on 15 May. After Erener's victory (with the exception of the and contests), Turkish entries to the contest were chosen internally. Turkey had always qualified for the final (except for the in Düsseldorf) since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004 and always reached the top ten, except in and . From 2000, Turkey had seven songs sung in English and four sung in both English and Turkish, with just three (, , and ) songs sung entirely in Turkish.

Along with Greece, Turkey brought the contest a new outlook with flashy stage performances and dresses alongside their oriental/Mediterranean-flavoured pop music acts (Sertab Erener, Sibel Tüzün, Kenan Doğulu and Hadise). In 2004, , , and , the country was represented by bands, most of them with rock-influenced songs with Ottoman, Eastern European and Balkan instruments. Athena ranked fourth in 2004, when the contest was held in Istanbul; Mor ve Ötesi ranked seventh with a song completely in Turkish in 2008 and the nu metal band Manga, named the Best European Act in the MTV Europe Music Awards 2009, ranked second in 2010. Yüksek Sadakat in 2011 placed 13th in the first semi-final of the contest and failed to qualify, marking the first and only time that Turkey failed to qualify for the final. In 2012, Turkey participated for the last time with the song "Love Me Back" by Can Bonomo, which placed seventh in the final with 112 points.

2013–present: Absence

TRT announced that it would not participate in the on 14 December 2012, citing dissatisfaction with the rules of the competition. TRT specifically cited changes to the voting system, in which a jury was introduced and the televote's influence was decreased to 50%. Turkey has not participated in or broadcast the contest since. In August 2018, İbrahim Eren, the Director-General of TRT, stated that TRT does not plan to return to the contest and break the boycott for various reasons, citing Conchita Wurst's participation and eventual victory in 2014. The EBU and Eren entered talks on a potential Turkish return ahead of ; despite this, the country was not on the final list of participants.

Participation overview

''Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest''

Hostings

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Conductors

Commentators and spokespersons

Prior to 2012 every contest Turkey had taken part in had always been commentated on by Turkish television presenter Bülend Özveren, with the exception of 1982–1985, 1990–1991, 1998–2001, and 2007. In addition Özveren also co-commentated the contest in 2004, 2011, and 2012. Out of the 38 years Turkey have broadcast the event Özveren has commentated on 29 of them making him nine years short of being the contest's longest commentator.

Photo gallery

File:Eurovision 2004 Opening Ceremony Sertab Erener.jpg|Sertab Erener in the opening of the . File:ESC 2007 Turkey - Kenan Doğulu - Shake it up Shekerim.jpg|Kenan Doğulu in Helsinki (2007) File:Mor ve Ötesi, Turkey, ESC 2008, 2nd semifinal.jpg|Mor ve Ötesi in Belgrade (2008) File:Hadise.jpg|Hadise in Moscow (2009) File:MaNga - We Could be the Same (2nd Semi-final).jpg|Manga in Oslo (2010)

Notes

References

References

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