Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest

Background

National broadcasting service of Turkey, Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), was one of the charter members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in 1950 along with eighteen countries around Europe including a North African state, Tunisia. As an intercontinental country (with lands in Eastern Thrace and Western Asia), Turkey takes part in lots of Westerner organisations including their NATO membership in 1952 and associate membership in the European Economic Community in 1959.

Test transmissions started on TRT 1 on 31 January 1968. A full national television schedule, which at that time linked the areas in and around Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir, started in December 1971. TRT renewed its membership in the European Broadcasting Union (having been a founding member previously offering only radio) starting on 26 August 1972 with Turkey's first Eurovision Network event, a football match (Turkey vs. Italy), on 13 January 1973. Turkish national broadcaster televised the Eurovision Song Contest between 1973 and 2012 incessantly, even in the years that they weren't participating (1973–74, 1976–77, 1979 and 1994).

1970s

Turkey debuted to the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1975 Contest, which is the 20th edition of the Contest and held in Stockholm, Sweden. Greece did not participate in the 1975 Contest for "unknown reasons" according to the EBU, but it was discovered that the withdrawal was in protest of Turkey's debut and its invasion of Cyprus in 1974.^[4][5] TRT organized a national final for 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 hosted by Bülend Özveren. The winning song was picked by averaging the ranks from the professional jury and people's jury as "Seninle Bir Dakika" (literally "A minute with you") by Semiha Yankı. At the close of voting the song had received only 3 points from Monaco and placed last.

In 1976, Greek entry aroused controversy as it was about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This time Turkey withdrew from the Contest to protest the political background of the entry of Greece, "Panagia Mou, Panagia Mou". Turkey televised the final on 3 April 1976 but censored the Greek entrant's performance and played a nationalist Turkish song titled "Memleketim" (literally "My motherland", is the Turkish cover of Yiddish folk song "Rabbi Elimelekh") which was one of the symbols of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in Turkey. Turkey didn't take part in the Contest until 1978.

The 1979 Contest was held in the Israeli capital, Jerusalem. Turkish entry selected as "Seviyorum" (literally "I'm in love") by Maria Rita Epik but Arab countries (are the Eastern neighbours of Turkey) compelled the Turkish government to withdraw from the Contest because of Arabs state of war with the host country, Israel. So Turkey withdrew from the Contest for the third time in 1979.

1980s

In 1980, Turkish superstar Ajda Pekkan selected internally by TRT and the song, "Petrol" through a national final. Pekkan placed 15th with 23 points, including the first ever twelve points received by Turkey from Morocco. Turkey participated to the Eurovision Song Contest in the eighties incessantly. And had their best result (until 1997) in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986, when Klips ve Onlar placed 9th with the total of 53 points in Bergen, Norway. The country scored "nul points" for two times in the eighties also, one in 1983 (shared with Spain) and the other one in 1987. The Contest has seen the most famous artists of Turkey in the eighties including Ajda Pekkan, Neco, Candan Erçetin and MFÖ.

1990s

Early 1990s the Contest wasn't popular in Turkey after Kayahan, one of the most famous singers of country placed 17th place in a set of 22 participating countries with 21 points. After Kayahan's failure Turkey mostly had unknown entrants or amateur singers (except 1991 and 1995) until 2003. Şebnem Paker, represented the country in two consecutive years, first time being in the 1996 Contest where she qualified to the final and placed 12th and in the 1997 Contest she placed third, behind the UK and Ireland, with the song "Dinle" (literally "Listen"), sung in Turkish. After the free language rule was re-introduced in 1999, the first Turkish entry to be partially sung in English, was at the 2000 contest. Turkey reached to the top ten second time since 1986 and first time to the top three, so that was the most successful result that the country ever had in the Eurovision Song Contest until their victory in 2003. Şebnem Paker returned to the Turkish national final in 1998 but placed fourth in the national final and didn't qualify for the Contest as the Turkish participant for a third consecutive year; Tüzmen represented the country and placed 14th. Turkey participated all the series of the contest in nineties except the 1994 edition, which they relegated from participating because of their 21st place in 1993.

2000s and 2010s

From the late 1990s to early 2000s, with the participation of the other Eastern European countries and the victory of Sertab Erener with the song "Everyway That I Can", the Contest has grown into one of the most popular events in Turkey. Following the introduction of televoting in 1998, (first trialled in 1997 and first used by Turkey in 1999) Turkey went on to achieve eight top ten results in the contest, having previously made the top ten in 1986 and 1997. Erener's song was the first Turkish entry in the contest to be sung completely in English. TRT selected the Turkish entry through an internal selection mainly organised by OGAE Turkey in 2003. The 2004 contest was held in the Abdi Ipekci Arena, with the first ever semifinal held on Wednesday 12 May, followed by the final on Saturday 15 May. After Erener's victory (except 2004 and 2005), Turkish entries to the Contest picked internally. Turkey had always qualified to the grand final, except the 2011 Contest in Düsseldorf, since introduction of the semi-finals in 2004 and always reached to the top ten, except 2005 and 2006, until their last participation (as of 2018) in 2012. From 2000, Turkey had seven songs sung in English and four sung in both English and Turkish, with just two (2005 and 2008) being sung entirely in Turkish.

Along with their northwestern neighbours Greece, Turkey brought the Contest a new outlook with flashy stage performances and dresses on their oriental/Mediterranean flavoured pop music products (Sertab Erener, Sibel Tüzün, Kenan Doğulu and Hadise). In 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2011, the country represented by bands, mostly being with rock influenced songs with a background of Ottoman, Eastern European and Balkans' instruments. Athena ranked 4th in 2004, when the contest was held in Istanbul; Mor ve Ötesi ranked 7th with a song completely in Turkish in 2008 and the nu metal band maNga, which named as the Best European Act in MTV Europe Music Awards 2009 ranked 2nd in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 respectively. Although Yüksek Sadakat in 2011 placed 13th in the first semi final of contest and failed to qualify, that was the first and only time that Turkey didn't qualify for the grand final. In 2012 Turkey participated to the Eurovision Song Contest for last time so far with the song "Love Me Back" completely sung in English by newcoming artist Can Bonomo, which qualified and placed 7th in the final with 112 points.