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Turkey: The country almost made a return in Eurovision 2017!

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Turkey remains absent from the Eurovision Song Contest since 2013. However and according to “The Euro Trip” podcast, Turkey was very close to making a return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017.

According to Paul Jordan, who served as the Director of Digital Communications at Scrn from 2015 to 2018, a company previously outsourced to run some Eurovision brand services, there were continuous talks between the EBU and the Turkish broadcaster TRT.

Specifically, Paul Jordan noted that:

In 2017 they [the EBU] were very close to having Turkey come back. They were in talks with the Turkish broadcaster, and it fell apart. There was an eagerness for a time for them to return. Maybe the door isn’t shut.

They got so close that Jon Ola Sand was engaging in talks with the broadcaster, so it could have very nearly happened. Then time went on… I don’t know if they changed their mind, or they ran out of time, or if there was an embargo from the government.

There was definitely a desire from the broadcaster and from the EBU to make this happen, and it nearly did happen. It would have been a great surprise, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.

Turkey in Eurovision

Turkey has not participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for 12 years, with its last appearance in 2012 during the event held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Since 2013, Turkey has refrained from entering the contest, initially voicing objections to certain regulations, including the status of the Big-Five countries and the introduction of juries that account for 50% of the final results. Additionally, Turkey expressed concerns about the representation of LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly referencing the comments made by the then-director of TRT regarding the drag artist Conchita Wurst, who won the contest for Austria in 2014.

Moreover, TRT was unhappy with the country’s results under the 50/50 voting system. When this voting format was fully implemented for all three shows in 2010, Turkey placed second overall. The public ranked the entry “We Could Be The Same” second, while the juries placed it eighth.

Turkey failed to qualify for the Grand Final for the first time in 2011. However, in 2012, Can Bonomo’s song “Love Me Back” experienced a significant disparity, ranking 22nd with the juries while achieving fourth place with the televoting.

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Source: The Euro Trip

Jon Ola Sand: “We don’t need to broaden our scope of participating countries in the Eurovision Song Contest.”

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On the last episode of Euro Trip, Jon Ola Sand, the ex-Executive Supervisor of Eurovision, talked about the possibility to see a debut of Kossovo or Kazakhstan but also for a returning country to come back any time soon.

At first, in his interview with the host of the show, he mentioned Kazakhstan and if the have chances to debut in Eurovision:

“There is a really keen interest from the broadcaster in Kazakhstan to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. There has never been any serious discussion to bring them in.They are not a member of the EBU, and we really don’t need to broaden our scope of participating countries in the Eurovision Song Contest.”

After that he talked about Kossovo and their chances of a debut, when he mentioned:

“There has been no attempt from the EBU to bring Kosovo into the Eurovision Song Contest. There have been discussions as a broadcaster, but they  lack the status to allow them to compete.“

Australia have been an exception because the country’s public broadcaster SBS has competed in every edition of the competition since owing to its associate EBU membership.

Last but not least, he talked about the possibility to see Luxembourg, Andorra, Slovakia, Monaco or Turkey returning in Eurovision Song Contest:

“We had talks with all the broadcasters you mentioned . It hasn’t been a priority for us to bring them in. There isn’t a need to grow the number of participants. But Turkey would have a higher priority than say, Monaco for instance”

Jon Ola Sand served as Executive Supervisor between 2011 and 2020. Prior to this role he was Executive Producer for Eurovision when the contest was held in Oslo, Norway in 2010.

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