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About Turkey...
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2004 Result
Points in Semi Final: N/A
Position in Semi Final: N/A
Points in Final: 195
Position in Final: 4th
2005 Contest: Directly qualified to Final
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History (1956 to 2003)
Turkey's previous appearances: 25 year(s) out of 48
Years participated: 1975; 1978; 1980-1993; 1995-
Best result: 1st (2003)
Turkey's long-awaited victory in 2003 proved that persistence can finally pay off. Nearly thirty years after its first appearance in 1975, and with just three previous top ten finishes to show for its efforts (9th in 1986, 3rd in 1997 and 10th in 2000), Turkey finally made it. In one of the closest results ever, the winning song, Sertab Erener's 'Every way that I can', squeaked home with just 2 points more than Belgium, and 3 more than Russia. Cannily, Turkey managed to present a song that was unmistakably Turkish, while making the decision to perform in English - as Sertab herself has admitted, this was almost certainly a factor in securing its narrow victory. The elaborate and impressive dance routine didn't do any harm at all, either. As last year's winners, Turkey naturally find themselves qualified directly to the 2004 Final.
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This year's entry
Position in Semi Final draw: N/A
Position in Final draw: 22
What I said prior to the Semi Final:
"Following up a Eurovision victory is never easy - perhaps sensing they have nothing to lose, the Turks have selected punk band Athena and the song 'For real' as their entry for 2004. Sounding like a hybrid of The Clash and Madness, the song at least has the distinction of being completely different to anything else ever performed at Eurovision. Goodness, the band even have tattoos! It seems doubtful that Turkey realistically expects this to win - but it's surprisingly appealing, and certainly memorable."
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What I predicted...
My prediction for Semi Final: N/A
My prediction for Final: 17th to 21st
What I predicted prior to the Semi Final:
"It used to be that host nations scored better than might otherwise be the case, perhaps because juries felt they had to reward whoever was putting on the show. Televoting, however, has no such niceties, as Latvia found out to its cost in 2003; hosts or not, 'Hello from Mars' could muster just 5 points. Performing third from last, Turkey has a good draw, though being stuck in a cluster of strong entries - UK two spaces before it, Romania and Sweden after - might not be so helpful. With the level of competition, this song might be just too oddball to challenge for a high position - yet as a serious song rather than a joke, it lacks the humour that helped to propel Alf Poier, Stefan Raab or Guildo up the results table. Scraping a top ten finish might be possible, but in my view a berth in the low teens seems more likely."
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What you thought...
Final Poll Ranking: out of 36 ()
(Updated 15 May 2004; change refers to movement over final week)
In the run up to the Contest, over 5,000 visitors to this site voted for their favourite song in the Soult.com Eurovision Poll.
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What actually happened
Well, I'm still not quite sure I get this song, but no-one could argue that the performance was anything other than lively, striking and memorable, going down a treat with all the Turks in the audience of the Abdi Ipekci Stadium. Charging to an impressive 4th place with 195 points, including the maximum 'douze' from Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands, the Turks could quite justly be proud of their performance - more than enough to secure direct entry to the 2005 Final, and completely ruining my prediction in the process.
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What the bookies thought...
 | Turkey to win: | 15/05/04 (prior to Final) | 18-1 |
| | 13/05/04 (after Semi Final) | 16-1 |
| | 11/05/04 | 14-1 |
| | 08/05/04 | 20-1 |
| | 06/05/04 | 14-1 |
| | 04/05/04 | 14-1 |
| | 31/04/04 | 14-1 |
| | 24/04/04 | 14-1 |
| | 17/04/04 | 16-1 |
| | 07/04/04 | 16-1 |
| | 24/03/04 | 16-1 |
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From the comments posted on this page, and its high position in the Soult.com Eurovision poll, many people thought the Turkish song would do well - and they were right. At 18-1, this was the outsider among those entries finishing in the top five.
(Odds quoted here were those offered by Coral.co.uk. 'F' indicates favourite, 'JF' joint favourite.)
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Links
 http://www.athenasite.com/
 http://www.trt.net.tr/
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Notes (see 'History' above)
- The 1956 Contest (where each country had two songs) is counted as a single appearance;
- Countries eliminated in the 1993 preliminary heat (EE, HU, RO, SK) ARE NOT counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest;
- Countries eliminated in the 1996 preliminary heat (DE, DK, HU, IL, MK, RO, RU) ARE NOT counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest;
- Countries eliminated in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 Semi Finals ARE counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest.
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Your comments (47)
From Izabelle, Sweden
Added 01:22:12 2006-11-26
I love this song. It has been 2 years , and Im still listning to the same music.. They should have won
From baran polat, Germany
Added 14:00:42 2006-05-22
athena-------For REAL
............TURKEY.....
...........:::)))):::.......
From xclusive beast Replying to Tipster JuanKaan, TURKEY
Added 17:45:47 2004-5-16
YOUR CRYSTAL BALL HAS A PROBLEM I THINK ???
TURKEY WAS CHOSEN AS THE 4TH BEST SONG IN ALL EUROPE!!
WOTS UP THEN ??
WELL DONE TURKEY,
SEE YOU IN KIEV 2005 :))
From nathalie, BELGIUM
Added 16:6:43 2004-5-15
i think that is a beautiful music!!!
From Tina , AUSTRALIA
Added 15:45:48 2004-5-15
Good luck, Athena! Interesting song!!!! Great performance! I'm torn between the songs from Turkey ~ Greece ~ France! The voters will have a tough time to choose. Unfortunately, I cannot vote!
From Tipster JuanKaan, TURKEY
Added 15:42:44 2004-5-15
And my "cyrstal ball" says that TURKEY has not any chance to be in TOP 10 with this song. But luckily will people vote for the HOME COUNTRY and also will countries like GERMANY(with many turks) vote, and also will GREECE, CYPRUS vote for friendship... And also will BOSNIA and ROMANIA vote for being Turkey's little brothers...
---------------------
As you see.. TURKEY has odds. BUT not any for the SONG.. The SONG is poor...
People that BET on EUROVISION should try
http://www.bettinghelp.8m.com
Let's kick'em all !!!
From nita, TURKEY
Added 10:49:3 2004-5-13
the song of Serbia & Montenegro is copy of one another song in turkish language 'SEN GELMEZ OLDUN'
I think that they must to be disfalificate, because this song is not their original song but one COPY.
From Elena, GREECE
Added 9:17:22 2004-5-13
Turkey & Greece & Ukrania should share the top 3 places. im not sure in what order but it should be this way. Turkey because of its originality, Greece because of the hot&sexy show, and finally Ukraine because of its great music.
East will rule Europe this year
Good luck everyone!!!
From Ozgur Yilmaz, TURKEY
Added 7:34:29 2004-5-13
come on, risin' up now, risin' up now! :) Another great song and amazing performance from Turkey. I'm so proud of you guys. I think we will take the first place this year too. Rock on!
From Ahmet, TURKEY
Added 2:39:43 2004-5-13
I hope Athena will do well. Regardless of the televoting they have a strong career, they are serious about music and they will definitely be touring in Europe so check their website link above!
From LoveLife, GREECE
Added 2:17:2 2004-5-13
Good Job fellow Turks. Good luck with your project and see you in the European Union soon!
From Zoran, MACEDONIA, THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC
Added 19:15:12 2004-5-12
I `m thinking that Tose will be the best , because he has wanderfull voice and high voice performances . Best wishis for Tose from MACEDONIA
From norgg-cenk, TURKEY
Added 14:36:35 2004-5-12
abi bir site var bizim athenayı sonuncu gosteriyor.. isallah ilk 3 e gireriz baska bise istemem..
From Frank, BELGIUM
Added 10:7:37 2004-5-12
Athena group is good, but Athena the capital of Greece is much better.
I believe it is number 2 your song.
Number one i believe Shake it - Sakis....
From Antonella, FRANCE
Added 22:14:25 2004-5-11
Nice song guys. IS your singer Greek? Good luck to you. We hope it will be the best eurovision there at Konstantinoupolis. I also like the song of my country and i do like Shake it by that
G R E E K G O O D !!!
Shake it everybody!!!
From Diana, SPAIN
Added 21:54:49 2004-5-11
I like your song but i prefer Sakis (the Greek guy) with the greek song. It is really good. Your song should be 4-5. Good luck Turkey. Is Athena a Greek name too? nice!!!
From fatihhhhhhh, TURKEY
Added 14:4:28 2004-5-8
canım athena goster kendiniiiii busene de 1.lik bizimmm . albanian music good but we will win greece music is same tukish music very bad
From Nikolas, SWITZERLAND
Added 20:49:59 2004-5-5
I canīt understand one second, how one compare this one with alf poier or guildo horn?
It fuses very well eastern and western musical styles, it is what the eurovison needs very much.
Itīs very hard to following up a victory, but I wonīt be sad, if turkey wins again, this is one of my favorites. Definately.
From Darko, SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
Added 17:34:17 2004-5-5
I prefer this to all the "cliche" Eurosong pop. Well done Turkey!
Must say this tune reminds me terribly of the songs performed by the South African Band "Boo"
From kostas, GREECE
Added 10:43:45 2004-5-4
Great punk-reggae-oriental mix song!I'm listening to it 10 times a day!It has great rythm!I wish it could take a good position in finals!Surely we are going to vote it!It deserves the name of our city that we borrow you!good luck!
From Wildebrew, ICELAND
Added 21:45:14 2004-5-3
Who would have thought .. a ska track mixed with Turkish influence. Admittedly the melody isn't terribly catchy (apart from the breakdown towards the end) but the drumming is superb and I really like the song's originality. My favourites last year where Romania and Beligum and this follows the latter ethnic influences. Hope they'll do well, definitely would place first if I were to give votes. cheers to all and have fun on the big day.
From SELiN, TURKEY
Added 20:28:50 2004-4-30
For real you have to watch Athena's video....its GREAT...
From Thomas, GREECE
Added 3:3:57 2004-4-30
In my opinion this is a Top-5 song. And it deserves to be! It's a song that stands out of the others!
The fans don't seem to support it very much, but hopefully in the final night will be much more unconventional voters than in the Internet polls. (Just remember Alf Poier last year.) And Turkey this year has a great strong song, much better than the stupid pop songs from the most countries (including my homeland...)
So good luck to our neighbours!
From Charlie, SWEDEN
Added 13:35:49 2004-4-29
Wow!!! WHAT a great merging between western and eastern music styles. I think this might be the first time I've ever liked a Turkish entry, and I really REALLY like it.
I'm slightly miffed though, since my hands-down favourite still is Ukraine and they're doing much the same thing as Turkey, so maybe Turkey will steal some votes from the fantastic Ruslana. But, hey, a thousand times rather this than a lot of the other songs! Good on you, Turkey!
From howie, UNITED KINGDOM
Added 12:5:6 2004-4-29
My favourite this year, but maybe a little too off-the-wall to win outright. I LURVE the trumpet intro, the ska feel and the "whiff of the soukh" - a thrilling combination. Despite it being too eccentric to win, it is catchy enough to attract mainstream votes. Top 10 for sure.
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Turkey
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