Turkey has not been in the Eurovision Song Contest since 2012. We miss them and their ethnic sounds that added a “je ne sais quoi” to the Eurovision family. Instead, they set up their own contest for members (and guests) of the Turkic-speaking world. Not just sovereign nations, but a few sub-national entities too.
Azerbaijan won the inaugural contest, held last December in Eskişehir, in Turkey. but like some other contests, the hosts the following year are already pre-determined. Hence it being in Kazan this year. Where is Kazan? It’s in Tatarstan, a constituent republic of the Russian Federation. You might know it as home of the football club Rubin Kazan.
The semi-final has taken place, to whittle the 25 entrants down to the final 12 that will fight it out on Friday. They represented 16 nations, seven regions of Russia, and one regions each from Moldova and Ukraine. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus pulled out at a late stage. Here are the participants:
01 Kazakhstan Zhanar Dugalova “Izin korem”
02 Germany Fahrettin Güneş “Sevdiğim”
03 Turkmenistan Züleyha Kakayeva “Shikga-Shikga bilerzik”
04 Georgia Ayla Shiriyeva & Aysel Mammadova “Tenhayam”
05 Uzbekistan Aziza Nizamova “Dunyo bolsin omon”
06 Albania Xhoi Bejko “Hava ve Ates”
07 Gagauzia Maria Topal “Aaladim”
08 Ukraine Natali Deniz “Sän benim”
09 Iran Barısh Grubu “Heydar baba”
10 Kabardino-Balkaria & Karachay-Cherkessia Eldar Zhanikaev “Barama”
11 Tatarstan Aydar Suleymanov “Atlar Çaba”
12 Moscow Kazan World “Sine ketem”
13 Kyrgyzstan Non-Stop “Seze bil”
14 Yakutia Vladlena Ivanova Sakhaya “Kyn”
15 Turkey Funda Kılıç “Hoppa”
16 Bosnia and Herzegovina Mensur Salkić “Susuyorum”
17 Bashkortostan Zaman “Kubair”
18 Bulgaria İsmail Matev “Yollara, tashlara”
19 Iraq Ahmed Duzlu “Chal Kalbimi”
20 Crimea Darina Siniçkina “Gider isen”
21 Azerbaijan Elvin Ordubadli “Divlerin Yalqizliği”
22 Romania Cengiz Erhan & Gafar Alev Genclik basa bir gelir
23 Macedonia Kaan Mazhar “Yolumu Bulurum”
24 Khakassia Sayana Saburova “Alzhaas”
25 Tuva Ayas Kuular Subedei
The scoring was slightly different to the system we know and love. Each country sent one juror to Kazan, and each juror gave each song a score between 1 and 10. So the maximum score for each song is 240. There is no televote. But whilst these scores were collated, we were treated to a song ‘Aniadim’ by none other than Eldar Qasimov. You might remember him as a former winner of the Eurovision Song Contest. He was also the Azerbaijani judge. Busy chap.
After he’d performed, we saw the songs with the scores each juror had given them. From this, it was easy to work out the top 12. The final scores were:
Tatarstan – 223
Turkey – 199
Kazakhstan – 198
Bashkortostan – 193
Kyrgyzstan – 190
Moscow – 190
Macedonia – 181
Crimea – 178
Iran – 178
Uzbekistan – 172
Bosnia & Herzegovina – 171
Turkmenistan – 169
Bulgaria – 168
Yakutia – 168
Azerbaijan – 166
Gaugazia – 162
Romania – 158
Iraq – 155
Albania – 154
Tuva – 151
Germany – 149
Kabardino-Balkaria & Karachay-Cherkessia – 148
Khakassia – 148
Ukraine – 148
Georgia – 141
A very unfortunate result for Bulgaria and Yakutia I think.
The final takes place on Friday 21 November at 1700 CET. Webcasts are available.
Categories: Eurovision 2014, Turkvision
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