Turkvision Song Contest 2020

The Turkvision Song Contest 2020 (Türkvizyon Şarkı Yarışması 2020) was the fourth edition of the Turkvision Song Contest. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey, with performances filmed remotely, and organised by Turkish Music Box Television (TMB TV).

The contest took place on 20 December 2020. Twenty-six Turkic regions, which have either a large Turkic population or a widely spoken Turkic language, participated in the contest. The Iraqi Turkmen, Moldova, the Nogais, Poland and Tyumen Oblast made their debuts in the contest, while Bashkortostan, Khakassia, Moscow, Tatarstan, Tuva and Yakutia returned to the contest, having been absent in 2015.

Ukraine won the contest with the song "Tikenli yol" performed by Natalie Papazoglu. Yakutia and Bosnia and Herzegovina placed second and third respectively, with Yakutia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Moscow, Gagauzia, Khakassia, Serbia and Tuva achieving their highest placings in the contest to date.

Background
Prior to 2020, the Turkvision Song Contest had not been held since 2015. A fourth edition was initially planned for 2016, to be hosted at the Yahya Kemal Beyatli Cultural Centre in Istanbul, but it was cancelled (ostensibly due to the Istanbul bombings throughout 2016). They subsequently attempted to host a 2017 edition in Kazakhstan}}, but to no avail, and plans to revive the contest in 2018 failed as well. Several of the songs competing in the 2020 contest were originally set to compete in the cancelled 2016 contest.

In October 2020, it was reported that TMB TV would host an online-only version of the contest from Istanbul.

Format
All performances were intended to be filmed by 15 November 2020 (although several participants filmed their entries after that date), with participants either chosen by national/regional broadcasters or through submitting their entries directly.

Voting
The jury was composed of one person per participating region, chosen by their region's head of delegation. Each juror scored every song from 0 to 10 points, and the song with the most points won. The jurors awarded their points via satellite link, and the chair of the jury was Belarusian singer Gunesh, who previously finished as runner-up for her country at the 2013 contest. The top three entrants will receive cash prizes, and the winner would receive a direct invitation to the Turkvision Song Contest 2021 in Shusha, Azerbaijan and the opportunity to film a music video for their entry. It was later revealed that the 2021 edition would be taking place in Turkistan, Kazakhstan instead, but in the end, the 2021 contest did not materialize. There was also an audience sympathy prize for the "Sari Gelin" cover that received the most votes on the contest website. The performances were ranked by the following jurors from each country participating in the contest:


 * – Avni Qahili
 * – Kenan Çelik
 * – Aigul Akhmadeeva
 * – Gunesh (chairperson)
 * – Ahmed Švrakić
 * – Petr Petkovic
 * – Volkan Gucer
 * Iraqi Turkmen – Ahmet Tuzlu
 * Flag of Uyghurs in Kazakhstan.png Kazakh Uyghurs – Polat Izimov
 * – Marat Omarov
 * – German Tanbaev
 * – Gulnur Satylganova
 * – Ivan Kain
 * – Leush Lyubich
 * Nogai – Ayna Cherkesova
 * – Erhan Hasip
 * – Ertan Birinci
 * – Dawid Szwajcowski
 * – Cengiz Erhan Kutluakay
 * – Denis Mavrić
 * – Damir Davletshin
 * – Selim Gülgören
 * – Kabirov Mansur Mannurovich
 * – Nadezhda Malenkova
 * – Chyskyyray
 * – Chyskyyray

Participating regions
The contest took place on Sunday 20 December at 16:00 TRT. The interval act consisted of Natali Deniz performing "Sarmaş bana". The following countries and regions participated in the contest:

Audience sympathy prize
The audience sympathy prize is in the running between 14 of the national representatives, who each recorded a cover of the famous folk song "Sari Gelin". Moscow's cover, which received the most online votes, won the prize. Voting opened on 15 December 2020 and closed on 1 January 2021. The following countries and artists competed:


 * – Aydan İlxaszade
 * – Ziliya Bahtieva
 * – Yulia Arnaut
 * – Seyran Ismayilkhanov
 * Iraqi Turkmen – Sarmad Mahmood
 * – Aiganysh Abdieva
 *  – Olga Shimanskaya
 * – Cengiz Sipahi
 * – Çağıl İşgüzar
 * – Mishelle
 * – Sunai Giolacai
 * – Diliya Ahmetshina
 * – Ertan & İsrafil
 * – Natalie Papazoglu

Scoreboard
The table below summarizes the point distribution as shown during the show. For each song, the official total score may sometimes differ from a direct sum of the individual scores received.

Other regions

 * – The Netherlands had initially confirmed their participation in the 2020 contest with Elcan Rzayev as their representative with the song "Ana – Vətən". However, Rzayev withdrew from the competition, as he was to unable to film his entry due to COVID-19 restrictions in the Netherlands. The Netherlands' non-participation was confirmed by the release of the running order by the contest organisers.
 * – Sweden had initially confirmed their participation at the 2020 contest with the singer Arghavan Agida and the song "Dirçəliş". However, on 12 December 2020, it was announced that Sweden had withdrawn from the contest. According to Eurovoix World, the country's withdrawal was caused by the inability of the Swedish singer to film a performance that was up to the standards of the competition.