Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Turkey participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song "For Real" written by Gökhan Özoğuz and Hakan Özoğuz. The song was performed by the band Athena, which was internally selected by the Turkish broadcaster Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu (TRT) to represent the nation at the 2004 contest. In addition to participating in the contest, TRT also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul after winning the competition in 2003 with the song "Everyway That I Can" performed by Sertab Erener. The announcement of Athena as the Turkish representative occurred on 2 September 2003, while their song was selected through the national final ''26. Eurovision Şarkı Yarışması Türkiye Finali''. Three songs were presented to the public between 21 and 24 January 2004 and the winning song, "For Real", was selected entirely by a public televote and announced on 24 January during the TRT 1 show Sayısal Gece.

As the host country, Turkey qualified to compete directly in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 22 during the final, Turkey placed fourth out of the 24 participating countries with 195 points.

Background
Prior to the 2004 contest, Turkey had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 25 times since its first entry in 1975. Turkey missed the 1979 contest because Arab countries pressured the Turkish government to withdraw from the contest because of the dispute over the Status of Jerusalem and 1994 contest due to a poor average score from the preceding contests, which ultimately led to relegation. Turkey had won the contest once: in 2003 with the song "Everyway That I Can" performed by Sertab Erener. The country's least successful result was in 1987 when it placed 22nd (last) with the song "Şarkım Sevgi Üstüne" by Seyyal Taner and Lokomotif, receiving 0 points in total.

The Turkish national broadcaster, Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu (TRT), broadcasts the event within Turkey and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. TRT has used various methods to select its entry in the past, such as internal selections and televised national finals. In order to select the Turkish representative at the 2004 contest, the broadcaster opted to organise a national final to select the song for an internally selected artist.

Artist selection
On 2 September 2003, TRT announced that they had internally selected the band Athena to represent Turkey in Istanbul. It was also announced that a national final would be held to select the song they would perform at the contest.

26. Eurovision Şarkı Yarışması Türkiye Finali
Three songs, all written by members of Athena Gökhan Özoğuz and Hakan Özoğuz, were submitted by the band for the national final and presented between 21 and 24 January 2004 during special broadcasts on TRT 1, TRT Int and TRT Radyo for the public to vote for their favourite song via telephone and SMS. The winning song, "For Real", was announced on 24 January during the TRT 1 show Sayısal Gece, hosted by Isik Özden and Ziya Kürküt. In addition to the announcement of Athena's contest entry, dance group Fire of Anatolia and 1990 Turkish Eurovision entrant Kayahan performed as guests during the show, which achieved a market share of 3.6% in Turkey.

At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from the semi-final in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. As the host country, Turkey automatically qualified to compete in the final on 15 May 2004. In addition to their participation in the final, Turkey is also required to broadcast and vote in the semi-final. The running order for the final in addition to the semi-final was decided through an allocation draw and Turkey was subsequently drawn to perform in position 22, following the entry from Cyprus and before the entry from Romania. Turkey placed fourth in the final, scoring 195 points.

The show was broadcast in Turkey on TRT 1 and TRT Int with commentary by Bülend Özveren and Didem Tolunay. The Turkish spokesperson, who announced the results of the Turkish televote during the final, was Meltem Ersan Yazgan.

Voting
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Turkey and awarded by Turkey in the semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Greece in the semi-final and to Ukraine in the final of the contest. Following the release of the televoting figures by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that a total of 190,746 televotes were cast in Turkey during the two shows: 121,008 votes in the final and 69,738 votes in the semi-final.