Hande Yener for Turkey – or not!

by Richard West-Soley 136 views

It seemed today that Turkish broadcaster TRT might have been the first to select its representative for the Serbian Eurovision Song Contest of 2008, as reports suggested that singer Hande Yener will be flying the flag for Turkey in Belgrade. However, it was not long before the rumour began to lose ground as it emerged that the proposal may have been rejected.

The singer, speaking to reporters mere days after Kenan Dogulu's sensational fourth place in Helsinki, explained that TRT officials had approached her just two days after the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest final. The contract between her and the station was ready to be finalised within fifteen days, and the plan was to send her to Serbia with a song in English.

Another high profile participant
Hande Yener, born in 1973, brings an alternative sound to the Turkish music scene, and in true diva style is prone to dramatic changes of appearance. Backed by seven album releases already, she is one of Turkey's most enduring and popular stars of the decade, and would continue a run of high-profile entrants for the broadcaster after recent stars such as 2003 winner Sertab Erener, Sibel Tüzün and Kenan Dogulu.

Confirmation of acceptance or rejection from the broadcaster is expected soon. As ever, the rumour mill is running at full speed in a country where Eurovision participation is hotly followed by the national press. In the meantime, below is a video montage of some of Hande's hits. Visit the official fan club homepage at this link for more information (in Turkish).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZA0xJquJPg

Richard West-Soley

Senior Editor

Richard's ESC history began way back in 1992, when he discovered the contest could fuel his passion for music and languages. Since then, it's been there at every corner for him in some way or another. He joined the esctoday.com team back in 2006, and quickly developed a love for writing about the contest. In his other life, he heads the development team at the learning resources company Linguascope, and writes about all aspects of language learning on the site Polyglossic.com.