Turkey took part in the

Eurovision Song Contest 1997 The Eurovision Song Contest 1997 was the 42nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on 3 May 1997 at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTÉ) and prese ...

. The country was represented by

Şebnem Paker Şebnem Paker (born 20 July 1977) is a Turkish guitarist, singer and music teacher.Grup Etnic Grup may refer to: * Grup Gerak Khas, a special forces regiment of the Malaysian Army * ADD Grup, a developer and manufacturer of smart metering solutions * Transferoviar Grup, a private railway company in Romania * Grup, a term for grown-ups Star ...

with the song "Dinle" written by Mehtap Altıntemiz and composed by

Levent Çoker Levent Çoker (born 1958) is a Turkish musician, arranger, conductor and composer who represented Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest as a composer, arranger and conductor in 1996 and 1997. His song " Dinle" won 3rd place in Eurovision Song Cont ...

. Both Şebnem Paker and Levent Çoker had represented Turkey in the

contest Contest may refer to: * Competition * Will contest * Contesting, amateur radio contesting (radiosport) Film and television * ''Contest'' (2013 film), an American film * Contest (1932 film), a German sports film * "The Contest", a 1992 season 4 e ...

of the preceding year.

Before Eurovision

20. Eurovision Şarkı Yarışması Türkiye Finali

The final took place on 1 March 1997 at the TRT Studios in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, hosted by Bülent Özveren and Meltem Ersan. Ten songs competed and the winner was determined by an expert jury. Songs #1,3,4,5 and 8 were performed by the use of backing tracks however they were still backed by the orchestra with their respective conductors. Songs #6,9 and 10 played live while songs #2 and 7 used full playback. Ümit Eroğlu was the chief conductor in this preselection. His orchestra consisted of 49 musicians.

At Eurovision

Heading into the final of the contest, RTÉ reported that bookmakers ranked the entry 25th (last) out of the 25 entries. On the night of the contest Şebnem performed 2nd in the running order, following Cyprus and preceding Norway. At the close of the voting, Dinle had received 121 points placing Turkey 3rd. This was the best result Turkey had ever reached at the contest up to that time, and will remain so until their victory in 2003. 18 participants voted for Dinle. The Turkish jury awarded its 12 points to Malta.Michael Kuyucu: ''Türkiye'nin Serüveni Eurovision'', İstanbul, 2005, , pp.222-229

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1997

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...