The many eras of Eurovision

"TurkeyÉ Twelve points!" It is hard to say just how desperately this country wanted to hear that sentence uttered by an international jury in its endless attempts at Eurovision victory throughout the 1970s, ’80s and most of the ’90s.

Though just a song contest, it was received more like a fight for honor, one that was unfortunately conceded every time. A massively hysteric commitment would be followed by a massive upset, and high hopes would be replaced by feelings of being robbed.

Many things have changed about the Eurovision Song Contest over the past four decades. The number of contestant countries has doubled, the variety has been boosted with the addition of many new genres and even Turkey has transitioned from its traditional bottom-dwelling position into a winning contender. But interest in this contest remains high, even if the hysteria has died down.

As pop princess Hadise steps up in an attempt to bring Turkey its second victory on Saturday, most of the country will lock their televisions to TRT and hang on every word of commentator Bülend Özveren, Turkey’s answer to Terry Wogan, hoping that they will not be robbed again.

The Turkish Radio and Television Association, or TRT, is not only broadcasting the Eurovision events, it is also responsible for the whole process, from beginning to end. Since 2003, TRT has picked who will represent Turkey Ğ a move that turned out to be a good one, as that was the first year the country emerged victorious, with pop diva Sertab Erener’s English-language song "Every Way That I Can" topping the competition. Previously, there was an elimination round to decide the Turkish contestant.The manager of TRT’s Ankara Entertainment Programs With Music, Hasan Taş, said this system was already used by most of the other competing countries. "Before this system, we were holding a competition, but we could not get anywhere with that," he said. "As soon as TRT decided on the performer, we won. That proves how sagacious the decision was."

Taş said they are among a group of officials in Moscow to support Hadise. "She is so popular here," he said of the 23-year-old Belgian-born pop star.

Six different systems have been used over the past decades to pick the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, and this year the voting system has been changed again. Tele-voting was introduced in the late 1990s in response to claims that the juries were acting based on politics, but the new system, which aimed to give power to the people, turned out to favor former Yugoslavian and Soviet Union countries. The organizers, the European Broadcasting Union, or EBU, have now switched to a new system that can be best described as "a bit of both."

New voting system

Birol Uzunay, the press consultant for the general manager of TRT explained the new voting system to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. "Each country chose five professional musicians for the jury," he said. "Fifty percent of the jury’s votes will be combined with 50 percent of the public votes that are sent in by mobile phone."

Although Taş makes the system sound simple, there have been no official descriptions issued to explain how the total of the jury and public votes will be calculated. The Web site for this year’s contest reads: "After all songs have been performed, viewers in all 42 participating countries can vote by making a phone call or sending an SMS for their favorite songs. The public is allowed to vote up to 20 times, but no one can vote for their own country."

Before mobile phones were common, there used to be a jury and a notary who would decide on the votes. The change is not likely to do Turkey any good, according to a diehard Eurovision fan.

"Turkey is looking among the unlucky countries when it came to jury points; since 1975, Turkey was at the bottom of the standings on most of the contests when juries decided," said Nadir Alkan, the editor of the Eurovision-Turkey team, a Web-based organization that has 14,000 members. "Turkey’s only chance is to get the public votes, which will help most Eastern countries. The Western ones are likely to be revived by the jury votes."

A former member of the jury, Meral Çiyan Şenerdi, believes that juries acted politically most of the time, but added that the Turkish jury used to be fair. "We were not allowed to watch the voting until we were on live broadcasting to vote, so as not to be swayed," she said. "The jury members were forbidden to go out during the competition." But times have changed, Şenerdi lamented. "Now none of the countries are ashamed of giving higher votes to their allies; it’s not the music and the performance that are being voted on anymore," she said. Besides the three years she was a jury member Şenerdi has not missed a single contest and remembers how "people gathered to watch the competition with curiosity." Her favorite Turkish entry was "Seninle Bir Dakika," performed by Semiha Yankı. The song was the first Turkey ever sent to the contest, but it sadly came in last. The heartfelt ballad went on to become a classic of Turkish pop music, however, showing how the contest’s outcome on the "real music world" can be unpredictable. "It does not have the same atmosphere anymore," Şenerdi said, adding that Eurovision has turned into something political. "People can’t get in the mood of the excitement of a music competition."

Şenerdi has a point. Last year, the Spaniards picked Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, a character played by comedian David Fernandez Ortiz, to sing a tongue-in-cheek number called "Baila el Chiki-chiki"; the Irish were even more heartless, sending the animal mascot Dustin the Turkey to represent his country. He was knocked out of the semifinal amid booing by loyal Eurovision fans. Alkan attributes such moves to the large countries’ bitterness about their constant failure in the event.

"When the public voting started, it made a negative impact on countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland and France, who always were successful, thanks to the jury," said Alkan, the editor of the Eurovision-Turkey group. "Then they had troubles finding contestants and acted like they didn’t care at all. That shatters the spirit of competition." Added Alkan, "We, just like international Eurovision fans, protest those countries competing with acts like that, for they are disrespecting the others’ genuine efforts and decreasing the quality of the Eurovision contest." Not all of the countries are mocking the event, however. Patricia Kaas, arguably the country’s most prominent diva, will represent France.

True, Eurovision has never broke serious ground in music, but it has made some decent contributions to the pop world Ğ ABBA, to name the most unforgettable one Ğ not that it would be unfair to say that Celine Dion making her way out into the music world overshadows all the positives, but that’s another story.

So, this Saturday, television viewers continent-wide, from the most purist music fan to the average fun seeker, will be hoping to catch something worthwhile in the competition’s 54th year. Some will try to discover a decent set of tunes, while others will be happy reveling in the kitsch, and a remarkable amount will be watching just because they like the competition. Like the rest of the Eurovision fans, Şenerdi will be watching, and becoming her own jury for that night. "I always vote for countries and mostly I am right," she said. Like a few million of her fellow Turks, she will hope all night long to hear the phrase "TurkeyÉ Twelve points!" called out once again.

Eurovision Highs and Lows

There are winners, there are losers and besides all these, there are many striking details to learn about the Eurovision Song Contest. Ireland has seven Eurovision wins, and Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom each have five. Sweden and the Netherlands have won four times, while Norway appeared at the bottom of the list at least 10 times Ğ but also won twice, in 1985 and 1995. Morocco took part in the Eurovision Song Contest only once, in 1980. In 2001, the

Eurovision Song Contest drew its largest-ever audience, when almost 38,000 people gathered at Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium. Last year, the record was set for the number of participants, with representatives of 42 countries performing. Not surprisingly, most of the winning songs have been performed in English. French is also a popular language at the song contest, with French-language tunes garnering 14 victories.

ABBA, the Swedish pop band that won the contest in 1974, is the most successful Eurovision winner. The most covered Eurovision song is certainly Domenico Mudugno's "Nel Blu Di Pinto Di Blu," also known as "Volare," which has been reinterpreted by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Cliff Richard and David Bowie. In 1998, a transvestite named "Dana" represented Israel Ğ and became the first transsexual ever to win the Eurovision Song Contest. An estimated 100 million people around the world tune in to watch every year.

A history Turkey would rather forget

Turkey finished the competition with zero points on two occasions, with Seyyal Taner and Çetin Alp. Taner went on to continue her music career, but the loss was totally devastating for Alp: His song "Opera" was not only the loser in 1983, but it was also ridiculed in a survey conducted in the 2000s as the worst song ever on the show. Though Alp could have enjoyed his Ed Wood-style notoriety, he did not. "I was 30 years old, it was a great opportunity for fame," Alp told daily Radikal in 2003, a year before his death. He was 36 years old at the time of the competition, actually, but still, he was right that he was not the only one to blame.

"That was a contest between compositions, so it was [the composer’s] responsibility," he said. "Why did they keep talking about me?" he asked. "Taner got zero points. Ajda Pekkan got some points, thanks to 12 from Morocco." Though Alp’s comment about Pekkan is not wrong, to give credit where credit is due, the self-described Turkish superstar’s "Pet’r Oil" was a song to remember in the country’s Eurovision history. Written by political activist Şanar Yurdatapan, it mocked the importance of oil at a time when the world was marred by an oil crisis. Its chorus went, "Oh, oil, my darling oil; now I can’t do without you, oil."