Turkey participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Rimi Rimi Ley" written by Göksan Arman and Erdinç Tunç. The song was performed by

Gülseren Gülseren Yıldırım (born 1973) is a Turkish-French singer, whose output covers a wide range of genres, including pop, Latin American music, Latin, techno, and traditional Turkish music. Despite having lived in France for most of her life, she ...

Before Eurovision

''27. Eurovision Şarkı Yarışması Türkiye Finali''

''27. Eurovision Şarkı Yarışması Türkiye Finali'' was the national final organised by TRT in order to select Turkey's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. Seven acts competed during the show held on 11 February 2005 at the Ari Studio 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 Meltem Yazgan and Bülent Özveren with the winner being selected by an expert jury. The show was broadcast on

TRT 1 TRT 1 (''TRT One'') is the first Turkish national television channel, owned by state broadcaster TRT. It was launched on 31 January 1968 as a test broadcast and was officially launched in December 1971. It was the only channel in Turkey until 15 ...

and

TRT International TRT INT was a Turkish television station part of the TRT. About TRT INT TRT INT started broadcasting in 1990 as TRT 5, and is now TRT's extensively watched TV station. As an international channel it broadcasts a selection of TRT's programming ...

as well as online via the broadcaster's official website ''trt.net.tr''.

Competing entries

TRT opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries between 20 August 2004 and 29 November 2004. Songs were required to be written in

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

. At the closing of the deadline, the broadcaster received 136 submissions. A fifteen-member selection committee consisting of Serpil Akıllıoğlu, Süleyman Erguner, Deniz Çakmakoğlu, Ümran Sönmezer, Muhsin Yıldırım, Adnan Süer, Tülay İtler Sunar, Neşet Ruacan, Kamil Özler,

Garo Mafyan Garo Mafyan (born 24 February 1951) is a Turkish musician, composer and music producer of Armenian descent. Personal life He grew up in Erenköy, Istanbul. He is married to Gülyüz (née Bayraktaroğlu) Mafyan, and has a daughter named Damla. He ...

Melih Kibar Melih Kibar (6 September 1951 – 7 April 2005) was a Turkish composer. Biography Born in Istanbul, he graduated from the German High School Istanbul and studied chemical engineering at Boğaziçi University. He received a Master's degree from ...

, İzzet Öz, Bülend Özveren, Ali Durgut and Zafer Ası selected seven entries from the received submissions to compete in the national final. The competing entries were announced on 12 January 2005 and among the competing artists was former Eurovision Song Contest entrant

Sedat Yüce Sedat Yüce (born 24 May 1976) is a Turkish singer. He represented Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. He also attempted to participate in ''O Ses Türkiye'', the Turkish version of '' The Voice'', which garnered a negative response. E ...

who represented Turkey in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

. On 18 January 2005, TRT announced that Elya & Grup Ariana would replace Mine as the performers of the song "Sen Benim Aşkımsın".

Final

The final took place on 11 February 2005. Seven songs competed and the winner, "Rimi Rimi Ley" performed by

, was determined by the votes of a 17-member jury panel. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 1975 Turkish Eurovision entrant

Semiha Yankı Semiha Yankı (born 15 January 1958) is a Turkish pop music singer, presenter and film actress, best known for representing Turkey for the first time at the Eurovision Song Contest 1975 with the song ''Seninle Bir Dakika Turkey took part i ...

and winner of the

Eurovision Song Contest 2004 The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey, following the country's victory at the with the song "Everyway That I Can" by Sertab Erener. Organised by the European Broa ...

for

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Ruslana Ruslana Stepanivna Lyzhychko ( uk, Руслана Степанівна Лижичко, ''Ruslana Lyzhychko''; born 24 May 1973), known mononymously as Ruslana, is a World Music Award and Eurovision Song Contest winning recording artist, holding ...

performed as guests.

Controversy

Controversy emerged when a panel of seventeen judges was charged with finding a winner of the final, despite earlier plans to allow televoters to decide the outcome. The winner,

, was also accused of rigging the final result. After the Turkish national final, Umran Akdokur, songwriter of "Sen Benim Aşkımsın" performed by the group Ariana officially asked the court in Ankara to cancel the outcome. Akdokur had claimed "Rimi Rimi Ley" did not match the requirements as set by the board of the Turkish public broadcaster TRT. Furthermore, it was claimed that Goksan Arman, the songwriter of the winning entry had been working for the TRT Grand Orchestra at the time, which is another contradiction to the entrance requirements issued by the TRT. The court of Ankara rejected all complaints against the Turkish Eurovision Song Contest entry on 8 May 2005.

At Eurovision

Turkey automatically qualified to the grand final, because it was on the top 12 last year. She performed sixth, following

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and preceding

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...

, and came 13th with 92 points. The spokesperson who revealed Turkey's votes for other countries was TRT and national final host Meltem Ersan Yazgan.

Voting

Points awarded to Turkey

Points awarded by Turkey

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2005

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005

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 ...