Turkey will not participate in Eurovision 2016
Unfortunately Turkey will NOT be back at the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden next year. TRT, the Turkish national broadcaster has confirmed that Turkey will not return to the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm next year. That’s the fourth year in a row without Turkey and I’m sure Eurovision fans aren’t quite happy after a lot of rumours and discussions amongsts them.
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 have 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.
The last time Turkey competed at the Eurovision Song Contest was in 2012 in Baku when Can Bonomo represented the nation with Love me back placing 7th in the grand final.