Turkey – The Turkish national broadcaster TRT surprised everyone today by announcing that the Istanbul based band “Yüksek Sadakat” will represent Turkey in Düsseldorf next May. The rock-band is quite popular in Turkey since 2005. Apparently TRT wants to repeat MaNgas success in Oslo by sending another rock act. The band consists of Kenan Vural, Serkan Özgenm, Kutlu Özmakinaci, Uğur Onatkut and Alpay Şalt. The song will be revealed at a later date. See some of their previous singles:
Ikarus:
Pervane:
Katil ve maktül:
The Eurovision Times 
2004 (4th), 2008 (7th) and 2010 (2nd) are as good results as 2007 (4th) and 2009 (4th) so it’s true rock does give good results to Turkey.. more importantly, it gives them extremely great esc songs (i have Turkey 1st in 2004, 3rd in 2008 and 2nd in 2010) and a nice twist of modernity, killing the cliché image Turkey had since the victory (after all, apart from “Dinle” and the 99 entry, Turkish esc songs were not really belly dancing songs before that)… Turkey’s one of the rare countries to send modern and good songs to esc, let’s keep it that way (lately Estonia and France are the only two countries who did so too, but neither in rock!)
With the significant voting advantage Turkey has in ESC TRT can send non-stereotypical stuff to ESC and they have already done so in 2004, 2008 and 2010. Such a pity that other countries who have the same advantages (Greece, Armenia) mainly stick to their silly shaky stuff and hardly dare send something different (exception Armenia 2009).
Yüksek Sadakat are a fantastic choice and I feel that the 2011 season has only really kicked off last nicht with this news. Well, I expect Turkey to end up quite high on my list once again (2006 6th, 2004 2nd, 2006 11th, 2008 1st, 2010 1st – everytime they send a bimbo, things on my list are different though 2007 21st, 2009 31st). The only other country that has achieved similarly good results on my list since 2003 is France. Estonia (since Morgan mentioned the country) has sent fantastic songs to the last two editions but most of their other post 2000 songs qualify as cr*ps in varying digrees.
Gosh, how could I forget Estonia 2003? That one is very good too.
i was gonna say ! i actually love the 2001 entry Dave Benton is a great performer, Tanel Pandar an amazing singer (his recent works with The Sun have made him one of my favorite estonian singers ever) and together there was chemistry and “everybody” always hit me as the non schlager upbeat song eurovision could need : i love how every single typical esc fan hates it
2000 is a very decent effort, it’s again the upbeat nice song that knows how to join two notes without making it sound late abba. 2002 was very well performed, it sounded teeny in an american way and i see why it would do good, but not my cup of tea. 2004 is crazy and stupid but quite pleasant fun to watch for 3 mns. True, i have Estonia in my bottom in both 2005 and 2006 but let’s notice that both of them are ok vocally, which we can’t say about other “song horrors” eurovision gives us. 2007 was a bad song, vocally average too, but she gave a great performance (mmmmh blonde dancers) and i thought it was average on the list. 2008 was a nice NF but they chose their worst esc song ever. 2009 and 2010 are flat out brilliant with best NF format. Long live eesti laul
I decided to look in my excel files (and i have many that rank eurovision songs in all possible ways) to look at my favorite modern esc countries.
Bosnia & Herzegovina : 3rd in 2001, 4th in 2002, 7th in 2003, 10th in 2004, 38th in 2005, 1st in 2006, 3rd in 2007, 4th in 2008, 3rd in 2009 and 12th in 2010
France : 4th in 2000, 4th in 2001, 1st in 2002, 3rd in 2003, 9th in 2004, 12th in 2005, 11th in 2006, 8th in 2007, 7th in 2008, 1st in 2009 and 18th in 2010
Turkey : 7th in 2000, 11th in 2001, 2nd in 2002, 4th in 2003, 1st in 2004, 22nd in 2005, 24th in 2006, 42nd in 2007, 3rd in 2008, 30th in 2009, 2nd in 2010
Estonia : 11th in 2000, 2nd in 2001, 18th in 2002, 2nd in 2003, 12th in 2004, 36th in 2005, 32nd in 2006, 25th in 2007, 41st in 2008, 2nd in 2009 and 1st in 2010
Serbia : 3rd in 2004, 10th in 2007, 1st in 2008, 20th in 2009, 3rd in 2010
Georgia : 1st in 2007, 8th in 2008, 19th in 2010
Russia : 9th in 2000, 1st in 2001, 13th in 2002, 8th in 2003, 19th in 2004, 5th in 2005, 3rd in 2006, 16th in 2007, 19th in 2008, 12th in 2009, 21st in 2010
Sweden, Ukraine and Romania complete the top 10 countries of the decade
Well, Morgan, we agree a lot but certainly not on Romania which has mostly sent stereotypical ESC stuff our normal esctoday member gets all excited about to ESC imo. Their only good entry so far remains 2003 imo and I can listen without cringing to 2007 too. The rest of the bunch goes straight to the bin. That brings Romania only to 48th place on my ESC countries list. In fact, I only rank Austria and Belarus lower. Still, I am very happy that this year’s song will probably help Romania to climb on my list.
that’s shocking ! i love Romania 94 (5th), 00 (2nd), 05 (2nd) and 06 (4th) and I like 02 and 03 and 07 is fun… and I love Austria !!
oh my i totally forgot Finland : 6th in 2000, 10th in 2002, 6th in 2006, 9th in 2007, 5th in 2008 & 8th in 2010
Austria has only sent 4 songs I really love in all those years: 1971, 1986, 1996 and 2005 … and I can include 2003 because I love the lyrics of ‘Weil der Mensch zählt’.
Finland is 37th on my list 1956 to 2010. In fact, I think that they have never sent anything better than their 1st entry which is my winning song for 1961. Other Finnish songs I love are their 1965, 1979 and 2002 entries … but we have always known that Finland in ESC is a topic we do not agree on. I love their NF but they very seldom choose a song I love. Last year, they had 3 to 4 songs that would have easily made it into my top 5 (and Heli to number 1 there) but they chose a song I find terribly dull, repetetive and unimaginative to this day. And believe me, I tried hard to like that song because most people I know love it and the ladies were so sweet and lovely. Alas, to no avail … it is still only in 21st place on my 2010 list … and if it weren’t for those ladies, they would probably be beyond 30.
insane ! finland is third behind france and bosnia for me, only 11 times they miss my top 10 ! finland is my winner in 79, 85 and 89 and 74 is between them and israel ! their 80s is brilliant !
austria is a great esc country, and austria 72 is my all time 5th, austria 71 is also my winner, and quite high in my all time list !
My top 10 1956-2010 (at least 5 participations):
1. Serbia (including 2004)
2. BiH
3. Andorra
4. France
5. Cyprus
6. Moldova
7. Italy
8. Albania
9. Portugal
10. Israel / Spain / Turkey (having an identical average of 7,22)
Oh God, we really must be utterly bonkers … all those lists and averages …
see that’s our problem, cyprus, which i hate passionately, they only got in my top 10 in 86 and 98 when i’m in a good mood with it… im ook with 96, 02 and 07 but that’s it
LOL … and your two favourite Cypriot songs aren’t even in my top 10 in their respective years.
Cyprus in my top 10: ’82 (winner), ’85, ’87, ’91, ’92, ’94 (winner), ’95 (runner-up), ’96, ’97, ’00 (winner), ’02, ’08, ’10 (runner-up).
82 is awful i have Dk winner lol i hate cyprus 82 but i can understand why it would be high… im ok with cyprus 85 though dull, hate it in 87
92 and 94 are ok though 92 live was quite annoying, in 94 it’s a nice song but can’t top Ireland at all, undoubtful winner that year
95 cyprus irritates me and i can’t concieve anything higher than Norway, especially not the screamy Spain… maybe Dk and Bosnia, but that’s it
97 is awful, 00 is fun but definitely stupid live, Latvia is a clear winner though Romania is quite perfect too
cyprus 08 is fun that i give you
I hate Cyprus 1987 too but since it was such a terrible year, the song is in my top 10 anyway (10th). I have never liked ‘Nocturne’ that much and never will.
1. It is basically not a song but an instrumental.
2. It has this esoteric/celtic touch that regularly brings songs near the bottom of my list. Well, Secret Garden are still 5th on my list because there weren’t many really good songs in 1995, but ‘The Voice’ is only 13th for example.
1. it is… an “instrumental song” ? of course it’s too different to always be loved, but it’s definitely one of the best songs to listent to from Eurovision, the choice was very risky and clearly the performance is perfect and even if there were some new age styles songs before in Eurovision, it is the one that launched it all (so many amazing esc songs in that genre…) it’s my all time 11th
2. i’ve always loved celtic music and Ireland 96 is my all time first, and France 96 is my all time 8th and Belgium 2003 is my all time 30th (and i love all the cheap ones too, like Sweden 96 or Belgium 99) to me Estonia 2009 is still a very far stretched heir of it all (with a brilliant twist of modernity)
I think it’s a bad move for TNT fair enough they got advantage in the voting but i dont think there entry this year will be strong enough to be Romania
i dont think it be stronge to beat Romania
Good choice, Turkey. I am looking forward to listening to Yüksek Sadakat’s song. I love ‘Katil ve maktül’, btw.
Turkey started to be a rock country.Even now, Turkey is a rock country(2004,2008,2010 and now 2011)rock forever!
the one thing we have to keep in mind is that, this will be constantly compared to manga, whereas before we used to have one year crap, one year rock and therefore were way too happy to compare… now it will be contantly a comparison with “We Could Be The Same” which was not only fantastic, but also delivered sueprbly (the light effect being the best of Oslo) and reached an amazing 2nd place… this group gotta get first or second to top that.. true many people will say that being in Germany for Turkey is almost being at home, but it will still be down to the song to be up the actual rock standards Turkey sent to Eurovision
bad bad bad voice and bad song
what song??? Great comment btw bff
I’m so happy with this choice. Since 2003, i have never liked pop songs of Turkey but rock ones are always at the top on my list. Turkey should have won in 2004 and 2010 for me. I hope we’ll see a great rock song again.
Eurovision isn’t only a pop song contest. It needs varierty!
welcome to the pro-turkish rock club lol