Turkey was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988 by a music trio named Mazhar Fuat Özkan (names of the members) with the song "Sufi", written and composed by the trio.

Before Eurovision

12. Eurovision Şarkı Yarışması Türkiye Finali

The national final featured songs written by seventeen composers directly invited by TRT. However,

Attila Özdemiroğlu Attila Özdemiroğlu (5 January 1943 – 20 April 2016) was a Turkish composer, arranger and music producer. He was best known for his award winning film scores in the 1970s and 1980s. Career Born on 5 January 1943 in Ankara, Özdemiroğlu got ...

, one of the invited composers, did not submit a song for unknown reasons. The final took place on 13 February 1988 at the TRT Studios in Ankara, hosted by Canan Kumbasar. Sixteen songs competed and the winner was determined by an expert jury. As there was a tie at the end of the voting, the head of the jury selected "Sufi" performed by

MFÖ Mazhar-Fuat-Özkan (MFÖ), also known by their original name Mazhar ve Fuat, is a Turkish pop and rock band with Mazhar Alanson, Fuat Güner and Özkan Uğur as members. While many of their songs poke fun at common Turkish types ("Ali Desidero", ...

as the winner.

At Eurovision

On the night of the contest Mahzar Fuat Özkan performed fifth, after the United Kingdom and before the Netherlands. At the close of the voting Sufi had received 37 points, placing Turkey fifteenth. 8 participants had voted for Sufi. In the 1985 contest Turkey had received 37 points from 8 countries.

Atilla Şereftuğ Atilla Şereftuğ (born 16 November 1950) is a Turkish-Swiss songwriter, born in Istanbul. Career In 1986, Şereftuğ participated in the Swiss heats of the Eurovision Song Contest as composer of the song "Pas pour moi". The song's co-composer w ...

, the composer of the winner ("Ne partez pas sans moi" by Celine Dion) was a

Turk Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...

living in Switzerland. The Turkish jury awarded its 12 points to the United Kingdom.Michael Kuyucu: ''Türkiye'nin Serüveni Eurovision'', İstanbul, 2005, , pp.161-163

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1988

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988

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 ...