Early 1990s the Contest was n't popular in Turkey after Kayahan , one of the most famous singers of country placed 17th out of 22 participating countries with 21 points . After Kayahan 's failure , Turkey 's Eurovision entrants were mostly unknown or were amateur singers until 2003 . Şebnem Paker , represented the country in two consecutive years , first time being in the 1996 Contest where she qualified to the final and placed 12th and in the 1997 Contest she placed third , behind the UK and Ireland , with the song " Dinle " ( " Listen " ) , sung in Turkish . After the free language rule was re-introduced in 1999 , the first Turkish entry to be partially sung in English was at the contest . Turkey reached to the top ten a second time since 1986 , and landed in the top three for the first time , making it the most successful result for them until their victory in 2003 . Şebnem Paker returned to the Turkish national final in 1998 , but placed fourth and did not qualify for the Contest as the Turkish participant for a third consecutive year . Tüzmen represented the country and placed 14th . Turkey participated all the series of the contest in nineties except the 1994 edition , which they relegated from participating because of their 21st place in 1993
the 1994 edition
Eurovision Song Contest 1994
Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest