Turkey first entered the Eurovision Song Contest
in 1975, but it took them over twenty years to have their first Top
5 result. In 2003, they made the ultimate breakthrough winning the
contest in Latvia, and the following year Turkey hosted the contest
in Istanbul. However after a couple of medicocre results in the
last couple of years, Turkey has to qualify for this year's final.
This year Turkish broadcaster TRT decided to
have an internal selection and on December 18th announced that they
had chosen the established local star Kenan Dogulu to go to
Helsinki. Kenan was they given a couple of monthes to come up with
a song suitable for Eurovision and after a minor delay, they song
was announced in early February. "Shake it Up Sekarim" is
written and composed by the singer, with lyrics in English and a
slight change to the spelling was announced in March "Shake it
Up Shekarim" was registered as the Turkish entry.
Kenan Dogulu was born on May 31st 1974 in
Istanbul and is considered one of the most popular and influential
musicians in the last ten years of the Turkish pop music industry.
At the early age of five, he enrolled into the piano class of the
School of Music with the highest scores. Having completed six years
of education in the piano class, he started flute classes from
Erkan Alpay, his instructor, and continued with guitar classes from
Erdem Sökmen with the establishment of the class. In the mean time
he continued his education in drama and rhytmic instruments, and he
carried on singing as a soloist in the children's chorus. Later, he
successfully graduated from Kültür Koleji and completed the
Communications certificate program at Hesser College, New
Hampshire, USA.
Kenan's first album "Yaparim Bilirsin"
was released in August 1993 and was promoted by almost one hundred
concerts held that year in Turkey. His second album "Simsiki
Siki Siki" was released in December 1994 and achieved an
unprecedented success with 175 live performances. The album
"Kenan Dogulu 3" which was launched in the music shops in
August 1996 helped further establish his fan base.
The maxi single "Kenan Dogulu 3.5"
including an arrangementment of the famed Turkish "Decennial
March" was released in 1997. For the celebration programmes of
75th annivesary of the Republic of Turkey in 1998, he also
successfully accomplished a Republic Road Show starting in Bursa,
followed by Antalya, Istanbul, Ankara, Iskenderun, Samsun, Selçuk
and ended in Izmir.
In 1999, inspired by the great attention of the
Turkish people on the rearrangement of the Decennial March, Kenan
released a new album with the rearrangement of the "Youth
March" in the memory of Atatürk, the founder of the Republic
of Turkey. He believes these works play an important role in
conveying the spirit of nationalism to younger generations. The
next album "Ben Senin Herseyinim" was released the same
year. Keeping silent for two years, he fulfilled the expectations
of his fans with his next album "Ex Askim" which became a
hit in 2001.
In 2002 Kenan Dogulu 5.5, the unplugged version
of Ex Askim was released and it sold very well. In 2003 he released
a brand new album "Demedi Deme" and his latest album,
"Festival", was released in 2006. On the album, was his
number one single, "Çakkidi", which became one of the
top Turkish hit songs of 2006 and also a collaboration with the
famous Turkish singer, Sezen Aksu. Kenan is currently working on a
compilation album which will span his career.
Being viewed by many as a hero of the nation,
Kenan's decision to perform his Eurovision entry in English,
angered many people in Turkey. Kenan has done limited foreign
promotion, and the same is in the middle of of both the betting
odds and internet polls.
Turkey was one of the countries which selected
its own position in the draw and chose to perform third from the
end.
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TURKEY @ EUROVISION