Category: TURKEY

🇹🇷 Conchita it’s your fault: Turkey to return in Eurovision ‘if no more bearded divas’

TURKEY – The head of Turkey’s public broadcaster has cited “someone like the bearded Austrian who wore a skirt” as one of the main reasons of Ankara’s ongoing boycott against Eurovision, apparently referring to Conchita, who won the international song contest in 2014.

“We don’t consider to rejoin the contest. We have reasons like the voting system. As a public broadcaster, we also cannot broadcast live at 9 p.m. –when children are still awake– someone like the bearded Austrian who wore a skirt, do not believe in genders and says that he is both a man and a woman,” the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation’s (TRT) general manager İbrahim Eren said during panel at a İbn Haldun University in Istanbul on August 4th.

Turkey has not participated in Eurovision since 2012 in protest at changes in the contest’s voting system that introduced a 50/50 jury and televoting deliberation, as well as the “Big Five” rule that allows Spain, Italy, the U.K., France and Germany to automatically qualify every year for the final.

It was speculated last year that Turkey could soon return to the European competition.

While refuting this speculation on Aug. 4, Eren also cited another reason for Turkey’s decision to boycott the event.

“I have told the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on the Eurovision issue that they deviated from their values. As a result, other countries also left Eurovision. There is a mental chaos at the EBU because of its executives. If they can fix it, we can join Eurovision again,” Eren added.

The “bearded diva” Conchita, formerly known as Conchita Wurst, won the Eurovision song contest in 2014 for her song Rise Like a Phoenix.

29-year-old Austrian is a recording artist and drag performer portrayed by Thomas Neuwirth.

More

🇹🇷 Bastırın Kızlar: Can Bonomo pens Sertab’s new song about women empowerment

TURKEY – After competing unsuccessfully in two national Eurovision Song Contest finals in 1989 and 1990, Sertab Erenerr was internally selected in 2003 and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, representing Turkey with the song “Every Way That I Can”, co-written by Demir Demirkan.

The song went on to top charts in countries all over Europe, including Sweden and Greece. In the wake of her Eurovision success, Erener released her first English-language album, No Boundaries, in 2004.

Her renditions of “Here I Am” and Bob Dylan’s “One More Cup of Coffee” were used in international movie soundtracks. “One More Cup of Coffee” was used in the soundtrack to Masked and Anonymous a semi-biopic of Bob Dylan.

Bonomo was born in İzmir, Turkey to a Sephardic Jewish Turkish family. At the age of 17, he began his official career as a vocal productionist in Istanbul. At the same time, Can went on with studying TV and cinema at the Istanbul Bilgi University with his programmes being aired on popular radio channels such as Number 1 FM, Radio101 and Radio Class.

Then his radio programmes were followed by programmes in international TV channels such as MTV and Number One TV.[5]’ Sephardic culture and the ancient language of exiled Spaniard Jew’s are the main elements that shaped his music.

After his musical career, he began to write poetry and publish poetry books. His first poetry book was named “Delirmek Belirmektir” (2014) and it was published by Küçük İskender.

In January, 2012, he was internally selected to represent Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan. In February 2012, Can revealed his song “Love Me Back” to the public.[8] He placed seventh with the song at the contest’s final competition on 26 May 2012.

More

Turkey 🇹🇷 TRT moves further away from the EBU shutting down their Eurovision liaison office

TURKEY – More sad news come from Turkey. As we read at ESCape News fan site for the Eurovision Song Contest and as we tried to understand from the contact we had with their team, it seems that Turkish national broadcaster has shut down the Eurovision office at TRT, which serves in each broadcaster as a liaison between the national broadcaster and the European Broadcasting Union. It is unknown what the next steps will be and we have no reaction by the EBU yet. TRT is the only active member of the EBU and therefore eligible to participate or broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest. Besides the Eurovision Song Contest all news and sports services will be inactive and the fans in Turkey hope it’s just temporary.

More

Turkey 🇹🇷 Abdi İpekçi Arena to be demolished

TURKEY – Abdi İpekçi Arena, formerly known as Abdi İpekçi Sports Complex, is a multi-purpose indoor arena that is located in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul, Turkey, situated just outside the ancient city walls, in Yedikule. Designed in 1979, and opened in 1989, after several years of interrupted construction, it is named after the renowned Turkish journalist Abdi İpekçi. The arena has an audience seating capacity of 12,270. It hosts national and international sports events, such as basketball, volleyball, wrestling, and weightlifting, as well as concerts and congresses, among other events. The facility contains a multi-faced visual scoreboard, six online-system counters, four locker rooms, two internet rooms, a press room, two multi-purpose offices, VIP rooms, etc. Its parking lot has a capacity of 1,500 cars. (source: wikipedia.org)

Abdi İpekçi Arena is going to be demolished the upcoming months as a new sports complex will take its place. The needs for a completely revamped venue for games and events is a necessity in Istanbul. Speaking to the press, Hidayet Türkoglu, President of thee Turkish Basketball Federation revealed information about the new multi-sports arena not forgetting thee great moments Turkish fans have experienced there.

Abdi İpekçi Arena hosted the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, a historic event for the contest’s history as for the first time the semi final was introduced. Ukraine won that contest. In this post you can also see a short BBC tribute to the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest edition. Turkey might have withdrawn due to objection to the basic EBU rules but one thing is for sure: we miss them!

For oikotimes.com that Eurovision edition was also historic as due to Peter and Vassilis, the website had it’s first on the spot experience in its 17th years online!

More

Can Bonomo 🇹🇷
Watch him in the kitchen of Arda ile Omuz Omuza

TURKEY – Bonomo was born in İzmir, Turkey to a Sephardi Turkish family. At the same time, Can went on with studying TV and cinema at the Istanbul Bilgi University with his programmes being aired on popular radio channels such as Number 1 FM, Radio101 and Radio Class.

Then his radio programmes were followed by programmes in international TV channels such as MTV and Number One TV. Sephardic culture and the ancient language of exiled Spaniard Jew’s are the main elements that shaped his music.

After his musical career, he began to write poetry and publish poetry books. His first poetry book was named “Delirmek Belirmektir” (2014) and it was published by Küçük İskender.

In January, 2012, he was internally selected to represent Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan. In February 2012, Can revealed his song “Love Me Back” to the public. He placed seventh with the song at the contest’s final competition on 26 May 2012.

More

The annual summer saga with Turkish return to Eurovision once again without a happy ending

TURKEY – Every summer the same thing: someone spreads the information that Turkey returns to Eurovision, the regional fan sites claim secure soruces and negotiations and in the end Turkey is not returning to Eurovision. Well, we have to write something in this empty month and waste both yours and our times. Finally and thanks to TRT the official announcement came: the country is not returning to the Eurovision Song Contest.

We couldn’t believe their return anyway especially after months of Erdogan attack to Europeans.

Sertab Erener was the first to spread this summer the rumour about Turkey returning to Eurovision Song Contest followed by Can Bonomo who left the imply that they are the 2018 representatives to Lisbon’s Eurovision edition. Hadise also declared her interest to represent again Turkey in Eurovision. The most hilarious was the implication that Fatma Turgut was in negotiations with TRT for it!

Deputy Primise Minister, Bekir Bozdag visited TRT headquarters and after a meeting there was an official announcement: the county is not returning to the Eurovision Song Contest. The statement was also posted on TRT Twitter account but it was withdrawn moments after it was posted.

Officially TRT is not participating in Eurovision due to televising system and the rule of BIG 5. The deadline for participating in Eurovision 2018 is still far away and miracles can happen (although we doubt)

More

maNga hint not only the Turkish return to Eurovision but also theirs

TURKEY – Sertab Erener, the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest winner recently posted an Insta story where she claimed the country in returning to the Eurovision Song Contest and wishing the artist who will be selected the very best of luck. The saga now continues as the 2010 representatives of Turkey in the contest, group maNga posted on Facebook a message saying “Eurovision? again and again” teasing their home country return to the contest. Despite the group’s rumours to also represent San Marino in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest which sounds a bit of a hoax, it is worth to pay attention to their comment coming right after Sertab’s hint message and it’s weird that the band are hinting their own return to the contest as the message clearly implies that they will represent the country in Lisbon. It is though weird that TRT is completely silent on the story.

About maNga

Manga was formed in the year 2001, being named after the word for ‘cool man’, ‘Manga'[citation needed]. Initially, they were mostly underground, playing covers of other rock and metal bands. They came into the public spotlight after finishing runner-up at the Sing your song’ music contest. This caught the attention of artist manager Hadi Elazzi (GRGDN), who immediately promoted the band to Sony Music, which resulted in their first, self-titled album being published in 2004, becoming a mass hit.

Following this, they performed at various music festivals and have worked with such famous Turkish singers as Koray Candemir (of Kargo fame), Vega and Göksel. Most of their songs are written by the group members. The genre of their music was described by Yağmur, the author of most of the songs, as having a touch on nu metal, hip hop and mixing these all in a “pot” with melodies of Anatolia.

Manga’s duet with Göksel is included in one of the most successful (with almost a million viewers) Turkish films, Sınav (featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme). Their song Bir kadın çizeceksin was featured among the music of the FIFA 06 game. The band is considered a headliner for several Turkish music festivals, including Saklıfest, Patlıcan, Rokofest and Rock’n Coke. Manga took to the stage at the Wembley Arena in London, together with Tarkan on 13 April 2008, but was then cancelled because of the technical problems. They then again took to the stage in London at the O2 Academy, Islington on 4 December 2009. On 12 January 2010 the Turkish broadcaster TRT announced that maNga would be the Turkish representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. They came second with 170 points, behind Germany.

Turkey in Eurovision

Turkey participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 34 times from their debut in 1975 with the song “Seninle Bir Dakika” performed by Semiha Yankı, to their withdrawal in 2013. Turkey has always qualified for the grand final, except the 2011 Contest, since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004. Since their debut in the two years Turkey finished last (1983 and 1987), they scored “nul points”. Before 1997, the country’s only top ten result was achieved by Klips ve Onlar, who placed ninth in 1986. Turkey achieved six top five results between 1997 and 2010; winning once in 2003 with the song “Everyway That I Can” by Sertab Erener, narrowly defeating Belgium by two points. In 2004, the home entry in Istanbul, “For Real” by Athena, placed fourth. In 2007, “Shake It Up Şekerim” by Kenan Doğulu also finished fourth. In 2008, the band Mor ve Ötesi placed seventh. In 2009, Hadise achieved another impressive result for Turkey, finishing in fourth place. In 2010, the nu metal band maNga, achieved Turkey’s second best result in the contest, finishing second.

Since the introduction of the free language rule (1997) as well as televoting (1999), Turkish entries had much more success than in previous years. In 1997, Turkey finished third with the song “Dinle” by Şebnem Paker, who sung all the song in Turkish. The country sent a song partially in English for the first time in 2000 and completely in English in 2003, the winning entry of that year. Since 2000, Turkey has had seven entries completely sung in English and four bilingual songs. TRT hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in Abdi İpekçi Arena, which is located in Istanbul and it was the first time that the Contest had two televised shows, with one semi-final held on Wednesday and the grand final held on the following Saturday. TRT announced on 14 December 2012 that they would not attend the 2013 competition in Malmö, Sweden citing dissatisfaction with the rules of the competition. In September 2013, Turkey’s state broadcaster stated a return is unlikely for the 2014 competition, citing the same reasons. Despite the rumours of the country’s return, Volkan Bozkır, a member of Turkish parliament from the conservative government party AKP, reported during a press conference that Turkey would no longer participate in the contest after Conchita Wurst’s victory in 2014. Also there was no television broadcast on TRT in 2013 (reason cited as Finland’s lesbian kiss in several places) and 2014, for the first time since the 1973 Contest.

More

Turkish media too excited about potential return to Eurovision; rumours keep going!

TURKEY – After a spread of the information that Turkey might return to the Eurovision Song Contest, Turkish media and fans sites are on a rally spreading any possible information about their alleged participation in the 2018 Eurovision edition. Well we can only hope this effort is not made in vain. Despite no confirmation by TRT but with high hopes after new Director General took over the broadcaster the fans and the regional media are looking forward to a great representation next year in Portugal.

It was not only the new Director General appointment that risen the hopes of the Turkish fans about their country’s return to Eurovision but 2003 Eurovision winner, Sertab Erener seems sure enough that the country is about to come back in the contest as recently posted on Instagram.

After several names on the table of gossip news, it is the turn of Fatma Turgut to be the alleged participant of the country in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. Fatma Turgut is started to follow the Eurovision account in Twitter and the fans saw that believing there is something going on. Sertab Erener liked her tweet and wished her good luck in Eurovision 2018. Is it sure or maybe another promotional effort of an artist (as we have seen many times).

There also tweets wishing the artist the best of luck in Eurovision 2018.

EBU is not hiding their happiness over the election of the new Director General for TRT but both them and TRT have made no statement regarding the Eurovision Song Contest. It might be very early to rise our hopes for the Anatalia country to come back to the contest but it can only bring happy news although we have to remember Turkish President is still very reluctant on his country’s relations with Europe, not to mention the recent extension of the country’s emergency status for another three months.

Let’s hope for the best and for music to unite Turkey and Europe once again like in the past.

WHO’s FATMA TURGUT?

Turkish rock singer most well known as the lead singer of the alternative band Model. The group has released nearly half a dozen successful albums since their debut in 2008. While earning a degree at Dokuz Eylül University and spending several years teaching classical guitar, she began performing in the amateur rock music scene. She and Model have created several jingles and other music for a number of advertisements. A native of Aydin, Turkey, she later lived in both Istanbul and Izmir. Sertab Erener and Demir Demirkan both helped to produce models second album Other Tales.

More