After a somewhat disappointing 13th place in Kyiv this year, Turkish broadcaster TRT is said to rely on an internal selection to chose the representantive for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. According to the German website vaybee.de, TRT will chose between Nil, Izel and the group Serfarad to represent the country in Athens.

Vaybee.be claims that all three candidates have to perform the same song, chosen by TRT. An internal jury then will decide which of the three contestants will be given the chance to represent their home country in Athens.

Nil
Nil Karaibrahimgil is a 29 years old female singer, who rose to fame with a tv ad for a phone company as ögur kiz (free and independant girl). Her music is described as a mix of drum'n'bass with oriental motives. She is known for her cheeky and ironic lyrics.

Sefarad
This group (pictured) consists of three young men, Sami Levi (aged 24), Cem Stamati (24) and Ceki Bensuse (25), who describe their music as ethno-pop. Their cultural roots are those of Serafades, Jewish people who emigrated to the Ottoman empire via Spain in the 14th century. Clarinet and darbuka, an oriental drum, are the typical instruments for their kind of music, which is very popular in Turkey.

Izel
36 years old Izel is one of Turkeys most successful female pop singers. All her albums sell very well. Izel already has experience with the Eurovision Song Contest: in 1991, she sung Iki dakika, together with Reyhan Karaca and Can Ugurlur and finished 12th.

Three weeks ago, Suleyman Erguner of TRT stated that the selection procedure for the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest has not been determined yet. Although it seems unliky TRT made up its mind in just three weeks, we asked the Turkish public broadcaster for a reaction on this story.