303/917 Semiha Yanki: Seninle bir dakika (Turkey 1975)

For the next song you can thank a Eurovision fan Antti Salmela. He chose the Eurovision Song Contest entry 303, which would be the first song ever for its country. The song did not become a big hit nor did it receive many points, but Eurovision fans still remember this song fondly.

17 year old Semiha Yanki took the big responsability to be the first artist to represent Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest. Her young age did not affect her perfomance, which combined vulnerability and strength with the traditional type of Turkish melody and lyrics.

Once again the juries were not interested in new, strange and exotic. Only the monegasque jury awarded Seninle bir dakika three points while most of the juries preferred a typical eurosong à la Dinge dong from the Netherlands. It would take more than 20 years before the Eurovision juries started to appreciate the Turkish music, when Dinle raised Turkey up to the third place in 1997.

This song has however become a firm favourite among the Eurovision fans, and the single release of the song is one of the most sought after Eurovision gems for the collectors. To me this song has not aged so well, I think it is ok, but not one of my favourite songs from 1975.

My points 3/5.