TheTurkvision Song Contest (TSC,Turkish:Türkvizyon Şarkı Yarışması), also known as theTürkvizyon Song Contest, has been a recurring song contest created by Turkish music channel TMB TV, inspired by the format of theEurovision Song Contest. Thefirst edition took place inEskişehir,Turkey in December 2013.[1] Countries and regions which wereTurkic-speaking and ofTurkic ethnicity were eligible to participate in the song contest. The contest was last held on 20 December 2020 as an online event hosted fromIstanbul, Turkey.[2] Several cancellations followed, and the future of the Turkvision Song Contest now remains uncertain.[3]
According to an October 2013 statement on the official website Turkvision.info: "Turkvision is a new contest inspired ofEurovision song contest. While Eurovision focuses in European countries, Turkvision is a contest whose participants are mainly from Turkish countries or Turkish spoken countries."[4] Turkvision was actually a song contest which was created byTÜRKSOY in cooperation with the Turkish music channel TMB TV.[citation needed] The participating countries and regions had to take part in the Semi Final.[citation needed] A juror from each nation awarded between 1 and 10 points for every entry, except their own.[citation needed] An amount of 12 to 15 nations qualified for the Grand Final where the jury determined the winner.[citation needed] TÜRKSOY stated that televoting would be introduced in the future, but this never took place.[citation needed]
Hosting of the Turkvision Song Contest took place in the country or region that also hosted theTurkic Capital of Culture instead of the previous year's winning country.[5]
In November 2020, the official Turkvision website posted that they hoped to stage the 2021 edition inShusha, Azerbaijan.[6] This was confirmed in December 2020 by İslam Bağırov, the contest's general coordinator, though it was later revealed that the 2021 edition would be taking place in Turkistan, Kazakhstan.[7][8] However, the 2021 contest did not materialize.
On 1 February 2022, the Uzbekistan Tourism Ambassador announced onTwitter that the 2022 contest would take place in the first week of June 2022 inFergana,Uzbekistan.[9] However, this did not materialize and TÜRKSOY stated that the contest will be moved toBursa,Turkey and take place later in the year, but that didn't materialize either.[3]
On 19 April 2024,Gunesh Abasova, Chairperson of the Turkvision 2020 jury and heavily involved in the contest since her participation in 2013, stated on social media that the contest is set to return in 2024. As part of a song release, she said that its music video would be premiered "at the large-scale competition Turkvision 2024".[10]
Twenty-four countries and regions took part in thefirst edition of Turkvision. There were several unsuccessful attempts to participate in the Turkvision Song Contest. Chuvashia, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Xinjiang were one of the originaltwenty-four participating areas with initial intentions to competing at the 2013 Contest, but later withdrew for undisclosed reasons.[11]
Russia'sOmsk Oblast broadcast the 2014 contest, but they have never made any statement regarding participation.[12] A delegation from another Russian federal subject,Kalmykia, attended the 2015 contest, but did not participate and have not made any subsequent statements regarding participation.[13]
Table key
Inactive – Countries or regions which have participated in the past, but did not participate in the most recent contest or will not participate in the upcoming contest.
The following countries and regions had confirmed participation at previous editions of the contest, but either withdrew prior to their debut or the contest was cancelled before they could:
Dagestan.[15] On 1 July 2016, it was confirmed thatDagestan would make their official Turkvision Song Contest début at the 2016 contest to be held in Turkey, however the contest was eventually canceled.[18]
Kumyk.[c][19] On 23 September 2015 it was confirmed that theKumyks would make their official début at the2015 contest to be held in Istanbul, Turkey.[20] However, on 17 December it was announced that Kumyk would not debut at the contest due to the current state of international relations between the Russian Federation and Turkey. Despite this Kumyk did select Gulmira, Fatima and Kamilya with the song "Alğa!" to represent them in 2015. The Kumyks had selected Daniyal Harunow as their artist in2016 before the contest's cancellation.[21]
Latvia.[15][16][22] On 29 October 2016, it was announced that Latvia would be making their Turkvision debut at the 2016 edition, and had internally selected Oksana Bilera with the song "Yakışıyor bize bu sevgi".[23] However, it was later confirmed that both of the 2016 contests had been cancelled due to theDecember 2016 Istanbul bombings.
Netherlands.[24] In October 2016, it was announced that the Netherlands would debut at the 2016 contest in Turkey, when the song "Ana – Vətən", performed by Elcan Rzayev, was announced as the country's entry.[25] However, the 2016 contest was later cancelled. The Netherlands' participation in the2020 contest was provisionally confirmed in November 2020, when "Ana – Vətən", performed by Elcan Rzayev, was again revealed as the Netherlands' entry for the contest.[26] However, in December 2020, Rzayev withdrew from the contest due toCOVID-19 restrictions in the Netherlands, leaving the country's participation in the contest in doubt.[27]
Russia
Stavropol Krai.[c][15][16] On 23 September 2015 it was confirmed thatNogais would make their official Turkvision Song Contest début at the 2015 contest to be held in Istanbul, Turkey.[28] But later on 23 November it was announced that they will be represented as Stavropol Krai. However, the contest was eventually canceled.
Sweden. On 25 October 2016, it was announced that Sweden will debut at the 2016 contest in Turkey. The same day it was announced that Arghavan with the song "Dirçəliş" will fly the Swedish to Turkey.[29] After initially opting to send their 2016 entry to the 2020 contest, the country eventually withdrew citing an inability to record a performance acceptable for the competition.[30]
The Bala Turkvision Song Contest was intended to be an annual children's version of the Turkvision Song Contest based on the format of theJunior Eurovision Song Contest.[31] Contestants had to be aged between 8 and 15 and had to perform in aTurkic language. Only one edition of the Bala Turkvision Song Contest took place, on 15 December 2015, and it included 13 countries and regions.[32] It had been announced on 7 June 2015, that the inaugural Bala Turkvision Song Contest would be held in Mary, Turkmenistan,[33] however, it was later decided that it would take place in Istanbul, Turkey, but it did not materialize and the contest disappeared without a trace.[34] Eligible to participate were Turkic regions, which had either a large Turkic population or a widely spoken Turkic language. Participating countries and regions included Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Gagauzia, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine.[35][36] Azerbaijan was the winner of the event with the song "Cocukluk Yillari" performed by Nuray Rahman and Ahmed Amirli.[37]
^ These countries were on the preliminary participation list for2013 contest but later withdrew prior to the finalised list of participating regions, for unknown reasons.[11]
^ These countries were on the preliminary participation list for2015 contest but were later forced to withdraw due to the Ministry of Culture banning Russian regions from theTURKSOY organisation.[38]
Eskişehir
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Kazan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Ukraine
Yakutia
Bashkortostan
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Media related toTürkvision Song Contest at Wikimedia Commons
