From when Turkey first started participating in Eurovision in 1975 until last year’s contest in 2008, Turkey has received the most points from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium (in that order, with the top three only giving Turkey 10- and 12-point scores since 2003). Because Turkey has received the most points from Germany, that may explain why Hadise’s Eurovision promotion tour this year has been so focused on Germany, in hopes of continuing this voting trend. (In the post about Hadise, I listed all of the tour dates I’ve been able to find for her; early on in the tour she performed in Germany a remarkable number of times.) I’m a little surprised that Hadise didn’t do any concerts in her home country of Belgium, perhaps this is because she is already pretty well-known there. Other than Belgium, she performed in the other four countries from which Turkey has received a lot of points in the past.

Even though the Balkan countries haven’t historically given Turkey a huge number of points collectively, Hadise also had an entire Balkan tour. This was strategic because these countries tend to vote as a block (though usually for each other). Her tour has been very heavily based in eastern Europe, probably in hopes that a lot of these smaller countries will be attracted to the musical style of “Düm Tek Tek” and all group together to vote for Turkey.

It is interesting that the branch of the tour that was cancelled was the Scandinavian part. Historically, Turkey has not received many points from these countries, so it would make sense to promote more in that area. However, since these countries also tend to vote in a block, and because they are all currently so enamored with Norwegian contestant Alexander Rybak, Hadise’s promoters probably figured that some extra rehearsals for the Moscow performances were more important than performances in countries who probably wouldn’t give many points to Turkey anyway.

In terms of patterns in who Turkey votes for, historically Turkey has given the most points to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Yugoslavia. Interestingly, Turkey generally gives its higher point scores (10 and 12) to countries in eastern Europe and in the Balkans while giving its lower scores (1-8) to countries in western Europe. Perhaps Turkey is trying to both show some allegiance to close-by countries in the Balkan peninsula by giving them the higher scores, while also trying to win favor (in the Eurovision contest, as well as politically) with some of the more powerful countries in Europe by giving them some points. These lower scores, given more frequently, however, have accumulated over time, which sort of skews the presentation of the data. For example, while Turkey has given the most points to the United Kingdom in the 30 Eurovision contests Turkey has participated in thus far, Turkey has only awarded the 12-point score to them twice. Conversely, Turkey has given Yugoslavia the 12-point score four times. This, of course, is just speaking in general terms; there is no clear-cut pattern in voting history, which can be accounted for because each year people in Turkey aren’t necessarily voting politically, but voting for the songs they like the best.

In terms of voting for the winning entry, Turkey has only given their highest 12-point score to the winning country’s entry seven times. Additionally, Turkey has given the winning entry, on average 7.41 points.

Source:

http://www.eurovisioncovers.co.uk/xttur.htm

The music department of the Turkish broadcaster Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu (TRT) has always been responsible for choosing the Eurovision entry since Turkey began participating in 1975. For a long time, the TRT held national finals, from which they would chose the Turkish Eurovision representative internally. Probably because almost anyone could audition, this failed to attract Turkish pop stars from auditioning and participating. Therefore, the musical acts chosen to represent Turkey were generally widely unknown and Turkey’s participation in Eurovision failed to excite much of the Turkish population. (This lack of interest is probably another reason the popular musical groups weren’t interested in taking part in the competition.)

In 1997, Turkey came in third place with Sebnem Paker singing “Dinle”. This mustered up some short lived Eurovision enthusiasm, though it faded in the following years probably because Turkey went back to placing in the middle of the competition.

In 2003, the TRT decided to stop the national competitions to find their Eurovision entries. Instead, they approached pop singers to represent the country, which helped muster up the local interest in the competition again. This change in the process proved to be successful, as their choice of Sertab Erener singing “Everyway That I Can” won the competition for Turkey that year.

Sources:

http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/12293
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest

Turkey has been participating in Eurovision since 1975; however, they didn’t participate in 1976, 1977, 1979, or 1994. While I couldn’t find definitive reasons as to why they didn’t participate in 1976 or 1977, I’m assuming that it was due to a lack of interest in the competition (after all, on their debut in the contest, they placed last). Turkey’s lack of participation in 1979 and 1994, however, are more noteworthy.

In 1979, Turkey was forced under pressure to withdraw by other Arab states that objected to Turkey (a predominantly Muslim country) participating in a contest held in Israel. This withdrawal was very upsetting for the chosen entry, Maria Rita Epik and 21.Peron performing the song “Seviyorum”.

In 1994, because there were so many new countries entering the competition, the lowest placing five countries from the 1993 contest were disqualified. Because Turkey only won 10 points from their 1993 entry, they placed 21st out of 25 entries, disqualifying them for the 1994 contest.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_1979
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_1994

Since Turkey’s 2003 entry won the Eurovision Song Contest, they hosted the contest in 2004, as is the tradition in the contest. The event took place at the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, the semi-final round occurred on May 12 and the finals on May 15. The slogan for that year was “Under The Same Sky”, in attempts to help unify Turkey with Europe, as historically there has been tension and controversy in accepting Turkey as part of Europe. Apparently there were some technical glitches in the voting system, but other than that the show ran relatively smoothly.

A small, but noteworthy political controversy took place in the presentation of the scores for Cyprus. For every other country, a map of the country was projected alongside their scores. However, since Turkey recognizes the Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus to be an independent republic, and because Turkey did not want to anger the international community, they didn’t project a map of Cyprus alongside their scores, angering some Cypriots.

Interestingly, the countries that did well in the contest in 2004 tended not to be the traditional powerhouse countries of western Europe. Almost all of the countries that finished in the top 10 (Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Sweeden, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, and Spain) are in central and eastern Europe. I’m guessing that this can be accounted partially because of the voting blocks that occur in this competition between certain countries (especially because many countries from the Balkan Peninsula did so well in 2004). Additionally, perhaps with the compeitition physically taking place in Turkey, other eastern European countries may have been more excited to participate, while the western European countires may have been less excited due to political reasons and tensions.

Turkey’s entry did well, placing fourth out of 24; however, ultimately Ukraine, in only it’s second year of participating in Eurovision, won the contest with Ruslana Lyzhichko’s performance of “Wild Dances”.

Sources:

http://www.eurovision.tv/page/history/by-year/contest?event=8#event_info_8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_2004

In 2003, Turkey won the Eurovision Song Contest with Sertab Erener’s performance of “Everyway That I Can”, which she co-wrote. She made a controversial decision to sing the song in English, which made this performance the first time Turkey had been represented in Eurovision by a song entirely in English. The song is upbeat and features traditional Turkish instruments in the arrangement, as well as belly dancing and flashy costumes. While these choices were probably made to honor and incorporate Turkish traditions into the song, they come off as overdone and kind of like a caricature of Turkish culture. (From the few video clips I’ve seen of Eurovision entries, it seems like this is a trend in entries from other countries as well.)

It is interesting to compare this song with the Eurovision song formula Ivan Raykoff and Robert Deam Tobin present in the introduction of their book on Eurovision. Of the seven points they mention, this song contains six of them (fast pace and catchy rhythms, memorable and repetitive lyrics, a contrasting chorus, a clearly defined finish, an appealing dance routine, and costumes), the only part of the formula the song doesn’t have is the key change (though I think Erener more than makes up for it with the little rap interlude before the final chorus). Even with adhering to the winning song formula, however, the song wasn’t projected to win at all. (The Russian group t. A. T. u. was the popular favorite many people thought were going to win the contest.) After the contest, the song became an international success, and Erener released an official video for the track, with even more sex appeal and cultural stereotypes than in the Eurovision performance:

Sources:

Raykoff, Ivan, and Robert Deam Tobin. 2007. “Introduction.”A Song for Europe: Popular Music and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. xix.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyway_That_I_Can

While the Eurovision Song Contest began in 1956, Turkey did not participate until 1975. In the intervening 34 years, Turkey has participated 31 times; the only years Turkey did not participate were 1976, 1977, 1979, and 1994.

All of the performers representing Turkey in Eurovision have been Turkish, and the majority of the songs performed have been sung completely in Turkish. The 2000 entry was the first to have English lyrics (though it also contained Turkish lyrics), and since 2000, English lyrics have been just as common as Turkish. Interestingly, the first time Turkey had an entry with exclusively English lyrics (in 2003) was the only year they won the competition.

Turkey does not have the most successful competition history in the contest. It wasn’t until their ninth entry (in 1985) that they broke into the top 10, though aside from that one occurrence, they placed in the bottom half of the competition until 1997. In 1997, they managed to place third, being represented by Sebnem Parker (who had also represented the country the previous year). However, from 1998-2002, they remained pretty much in the middle of the competition. As mentioned earlier, in 2003 Turkey won the competition with Sertab Erener’s performance of “Everyway That I Can”. The following year (when Turkey hosted the competition), they placed fourth (though they received more points than in 2003), and didn’t break into the top five again until 2007.

The majority of the songs performed in the history of Eurovision to represent Turkey have not been original songs to the performers. Eleven of the 31 songs have been either written or co-written by the singers and/or groups that performed them. However, seven of those 11 songs were entries in the last ten years, and since 2006, all of the songs have been either written or co-written by the performers.

Sources:

http://www.eurovision.tv/page/history/by-country/country?country=17
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest

Russia has been competing in the Eurovision song contest since 1994 when they became a member of the European Broadcast Union, though they have only done it every year since 2000.  In 2000 and 2006, they came in 2nd place, and in 2003 and 2007, they came in 3rd place.  Last year in 2008, they won the competition with Dima Bilan’s rendition of “Believe”, a song with writing credits by the producer Timbaland.  An article in the NY Times describes the winning act: “Dima Bilan, a Russian pop singer with a mullet hairdo, gyrating on stage as Yevgeny Plyushchenko, the Olympic champion figure skater, pirouetted on a patch of artificial ice.”  This year, Russia is hosting the contest in Moscow.