Next Cambodia's Finest Voice Sat 17 Oct

Rank the songs

won it in 2003

Turkey at Eurovision

Turkey first sang at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1975 and has entered 34 contests, the last of them in 2012. It has won once, in 2003, with “Everyway That I Can” by Sertab Erener. The contest has been held there once, in Istanbul in 2004.

34
contests
1
win
1
hosted
first song
1975
last song
2012
contests
34
wins
1 — 2003
second place
1 — 2010
last place
3 — 1975, 1983, 1987
nul points
1983, 1987
in the final
8 of 9 tries since semi-finals began in 2004
sung in
Turkish (27), English (10)
hosted
Istanbul 2004
not in the line-up
1976, 1977, 1979, 1994

The win

Photos are stills from the contest’s own videos on YouTube. Each one opens that year’s story.

Every song

All 34 entries, newest first. The year opens the story of that contest; the name opens the artist.

Year Artist Song Result Points
2012 Baku Can Bonomo “Love Me Back” English 7th of 26 112
2011 Düsseldorf Yüksek Sadakat “Live It Up” English Out in semi-final 1 (13th of 19) 47
2010 Oslo Manga “We Could Be the Same” English 2nd of 25 170
2009 Moscow Hadise “Düm Tek Tek” English 4th of 25 177
2008 Belgrade Mor ve Ötesi “Deli” Turkish 7th of 25 138
2007 Helsinki Kenan Doğulu “Shake It Up Şekerim” English 4th of 24 163
2006 Athens Sibel Tüzün “Süper Star” Turkish 11th of 24 91
2005 Kyiv Gülseren “Rimi Rimi Ley” Turkish 13th of 24 92
2004 Istanbul Athena “For Real” English 4th of 24 195
2003 Riga Sertab Erener “Everyway That I Can” English winner! 167
2002 Tallinn Buket Bengisu and Group Safir “Leylaklar Soldu Kalbinde” Turkish, English 16th of 24 29
2001 Copenhagen Sedat Yüce “Sevgiliye Son” Turkish, English 11th of 23 41
2000 Stockholm Pınar and the SOS “Yorgunum Anla” Turkish, English 10th of 24 59
1999 Jerusalem Tuba Önal and Grup Mistik “Dön Artık” Turkish 16th of 23 21
1998 Birmingham Tüzmen “Unutamazsın” Turkish 14th of 25 25
1997 Dublin Şebnem Paker and Grup Ethnic “Dinle” Turkish 3rd of 25 121
1996 Oslo Şebnem Paker “Beşinci Mevsim” Turkish 12th of 23 57
1995 Dublin Arzu Ece “Sev!” Turkish 16th of 23 21
1993 Millstreet Burak Aydos, Öztürk Baybora and Serter “Esmer Yarim” Turkish 21st of 25 10
1992 Malmö Aylin Vatankoş “Yaz Bitti” Turkish 19th of 23 17
1991 Rome Can Uğurluer, İzel Çeliköz and Reyhan Karaca “İki Dakika” Turkish 12th of 22 44
1990 Zagreb Kayahan “Gözlerinin Hapsindeyim” Turkish 17th of 22 21
1989 Lausanne Pan “Bana Bana” Turkish 21st of 22 5
1988 Dublin MFÖ “Sufi (Hey Ya Hey)” Turkish 15th of 21 37
1987 Brussels Seyyal Taner and Grup Lokomotif “Şarkım Sevgi Üstüne” Turkish 22nd of 22 0
1986 Bergen Klips ve Onlar “Halley” Turkish 9th of 20 53
1985 Gothenburg MFÖ “Didai didai dai” Turkish 14th of 19 36
1984 Luxembourg City Beş Yıl Önce, On Yıl Sonra “Halay” Turkish 12th of 19 37
1983 Munich Çetin Alp and the Short Wave “Opera” Turkish 19th of 20 0
1982 Harrogate Neco “Hani?” Turkish 15th of 18 20
1981 Dublin Modern Folk Trio and Ayşegül “Dönme Dolap” Turkish 18th of 20 9
1980 The Hague Ajda Pekkan “Pet'r Oil” Turkish 15th of 19 23
1978 Paris Nilüfer and Nazar “Sevince” Turkish 18th of 20 2
1975 Stockholm Semiha Yankı “Seninle Bir Dakika” Turkish 19th of 19 3

Points for a song that went out in a semi-final are its semi-final points. Before 2004 there were no semi-finals: every song sang on the one night.

Sent more than once

The two acts Turkey has sent to more than one contest.

Hosting

The one contest held in Turkey.

On air at home

The channels that carried the contest in Turkey, year by year, and who commentated where our source names them. Newest first.

  1. 2012
    • TRT 1, TRT HD, TRT Türk, TRT Müzik, TRT Avaz Bülend Özveren and Erhan Konuk
  2. 2011
    • TRT 1 Bülend Özveren and Erhan Konuk
  3. 2010
    • TRT 1
  4. 2009
    • TRT 1
  5. 2008
    • TRT 1, TRT Int
    • TRT Türk (final) Bülend Özveren
  6. 2007
    • TRT 1 (semi-final)
    • TRT 1 (final) Hakan Urgancı
  7. 2006
    • TRT 1 Bülend Özveren
  8. 2005
    • TRT 1
  9. 2004
    • TRT 1, TRT Int
  10. 2003
    • TRT 1 Bülend Özveren
  11. 2002
    • TRT 1 Ömer Önder
  12. 2001
    • TRT 1
  13. 2000
    • TRT 1 Ömer Önder
  14. 1999
    • TRT 1 Gülşah Banda
  15. 1998
    • TRT 1 Bülend Özveren
  16. 1997
    • TRT 1
  17. 1996
    • TRT 1
  18. 1995
    • TRT 1
  19. 1994
    • TRT 1
  20. 1993
    • TRT 1 Bülend Özveren
  21. 1992
    • TV1
  22. 1991
    • TV1
  23. 1990
    • TV1 Başak Doğru
  24. 1989
    • TV1 Bülend Özveren
  25. 1988
    • TV1
  26. 1987
    • TV1
  27. 1986
    • TRT Televizyon Gülgün Baysal
  28. 1985
    • TRT Televizyon Başak Doğru
  29. 1984
    • TRT Televizyon Başak Doğru
  30. 1983
    • TRT Televizyon
  31. 1982
    • TRT Televizyon Ümit Tunçağ
  32. 1981
    • TRT Televizyon
  33. 1980
    • TRT Televizyon Bülend Özveren
    • Radyo 3 Şebnem Savaşçı
  34. 1978
    • TRT Televizyon
  35. 1977
    • TRT Televizyon Bülend Özveren
    • TRT Ümit Tunçağ
  36. 1976
    • TRT Televizyon Başak Doğru
  37. 1975
    • TRT Televizyon
  38. 1974
    • TRT Televizyon, Radyo 2
  39. 1973
    • TRT Televizyon

In our contest stories

Lines about Turkey from our story of each contest. Follow a link for the rest of that night.

  • 1974 The missing eighteenth

    Turkey asked to as well, but too late — and was told that a scoreboard with room for eighteen countries had already been built.

  • 1975 Nineteen

    Turkey entered for the first time.

  • 1975 Nineteen

    Turkey had invaded Cyprus the previous summer, and Greece is reported to have pulled out late — possibly rather than share a stage with it.

  • 1976 The Greek song

    In 1976 it came back with a song about it, sung by Mariza Koch. This time it was Turkey that withdrew.

  • 1978 Twenty

    Denmark came back after twelve years away, and Turkey after two.

  • 1983 The result

    At the bottom, Spain and Turkey both scored nothing.

  • 1987 The result

    Turkey finished last with no points, for the second time in five years.

  • 1997 The result

    Turkey, in third, had its best result yet.

  • 1998 The public decides

    In every country except Hungary, Romania and Turkey, the points were now decided by viewers on the telephone.

  • 2003 The result

    Turkey won, for the first time, 28 years after it first entered.

  • 2003 Ireland's jury

    Turkey would still have won.

  • 2004 The semi-final's problems

    Just before Slovenia's song, the host broadcaster cut to a commercial break by mistake, and Turkey never heard it.

  • 2004 Small disasters

    During one of the pauses for advertising, the presenters tried to talk live to Germany, Spain and Turkey.

  • 2007 The semi-final

    The ten that went through were Serbia, Hungary, Turkey, Belarus, Latvia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Georgia, Macedonia and Moldova.

  • 2009 The result

    Azerbaijan was third and Turkey fourth.

  • 2010 The result

    Germany's Lena won with "Satellite". She was first with the juries and first with the public, and finished on 246 points, 76 ahead of Turkey.

Results as published by the European Broadcasting Union. “Not in the line-up” means no song from Turkey was in that year’s contest, whatever the reason. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we’ll fix it.