In the late 1990s to early 2000s , the Contest had become one of the most popular events in Turkey as a result of the participation of the other Eastern European countries , and the victory of Sertab Erener with the song " Everyway That I Can " . Following the introduction of televoting in 1998 , ( initially trialed in 1997 and first implemented in Turkey in 1999 ) Turkey went on to achieve eight top ten results in the contest , having previously made the top ten in 1986 and 1997 . Erener 's song was the first Turkish entry in the contest to be sung completely in English . TRT selected the Turkish entry through an internal selection mainly organised by OGAE Turkey in 2003 . The 2004 contest was held in the Abdi Ipekci Arena , with the first ever semi-final held on Wednesday 12 May , followed by the final on Saturday 15 May . After Erener 's victory ( except 2004 and 2005 ) , Turkish entries to the Contest picked internally . Turkey had always qualified to the grand final , except the 2011 Contest in Düsseldorf , since introduction of the semi-finals in 2004 and always reached to the top ten , except 2005 and 2006 , until their last participation ( as of 2018 ) in 2012 . From 2000 , Turkey had seven songs sung in English and four sung in both English and Turkish , with just two ( and ) songs sung entirely in Turkish
Everyway That I Can
Everyway That I Can
Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest