Look towards the eastern Mediterranean, and you’ll spot a large country that used to take part with gusto in our favourite TV show. They may not have always had a good contest, but they were relied upon to bring a bit of freshness to proceedings.
In 1995, today’s birthday girl Arzu Ece (née Arzu Özkaraman) took part in her second contest. Her first gave us a memorable number that was roundly “panned” by the juries. In Dublin, her song wasn’t about a late, great, Spanish golfer, but instead about music’s favourite subject – love. Ahhhh. What could go wrong? Well, she got a scattering of points mainly from southern Europe. As we know, Türkiye has been sitting and watching (or perhaps not watching) proceedings for over a decade. Who wouldn’t love to see them back?
Arzu is 60 today.
Doğum günün kutlu olsun Arzu’m!