Our friends in Turkey/Türkiye are taking a sabbatical at the moment, and many of you out there miss them. They brought something slightly exotic to proceedings, and their language – for many years anyway – was alluringly different.
Just over twenty years ago we were living it up in Tallinn, where the sun hardly ever set. It must have been a culture shock for today’s birthday girl Buket Bengisu and her pals, travelling so far north. There was all manner of bonkersness in the 2002 contest, so anything that was a little bit serious might have fallen away. That fate befell our Buket, and she only managed a 16th place. However, she belongs to that very exclusive one-year-too-early club, as we all know what happened to Turkey’s/Türkiye’s song in 2003.
Buket is 46 today.
Doğum günün kutlu olsun, Buket!