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