#esc 2008

At one of her performances with the Metropolitan Orchestra in the Carré theater in Amsterdam, Hind (Netherlands 2008) had the honor of performing in front of Dutch Queen Beatrix.

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Türkiye was firmly in its rock period by 2008. TRT internally selected mor ve ötesi (Beyond the Purple), one of the biggest rock bands in Türkiye. Starting out in the late 1990s, the band had grown to the extent that their 2004 album Dünya Yalan Söylüyor (The World is Lying) had been the best selling album in the country that year. TRT were not messing around.

More interestingly, mor ve ötesi were becoming more outspoken politically in their lyrics. That 2004 album had been critical of USA foreign policy, notably in Iraq. Their next album was focused more strongly on criticising the political situation at home in Türkiye. This is by no means a safe choice even if it was a popular one.

2008 saw the band getting ready to release their sixth album to be launched on the back of their Eurovision appearance. Several acts have got to Eurovision as part of a push to break a career. mor ve ötesi had already made it big. This was possibly one of the rare occasions a band had been treating Eurovision more in the way that Italian acts treat Sanremo. As a means to promote a new album or track. There was also, of course, the opportunity to appear before a much wider European audience.

The song they picked was Deli (Insane). When Terry Wogan described lead singer Harun Tekin as a sinister James Bond, he was getting entirely the wrong end of the wrong stick. This is a song about the relationship between a child and his parents, particularly his father - and even that has metaphorical elements depending on how deeply you want to read the song.

It's a song of complaint. A letter to a parent who was not a good one. One who in the place of love and care substitutes with fake dreams and promises that aren't kept. It states that absent paternalism doesn't bring up a healthy new generation, but an empty one. A generation that's unsure where its soul is and that feels an internal schism so profound that's driving them insane. Not James Bond at all really.

It did take a little bit of time to grow on the Eurovision watching audience. It made it out of its semi-final, but only in seventh place. But by the weekend and the grand final, the rock guitars had found their home in the hearts of the televoters. Deli came seventh again, but this time with considerably more points and giving Türkiye another top ten finish, the country's third in a row and fifth in the last six Eurovisions. Türkiye had become a Eurovision powerhouse.

For Mor ve Ötesi, the job was a good one. Their album did well and in 2009, they embarked on their biggest and most extensive European tour to that date. They've continued to this day releasing huge albums, and continuing to tour worldwide. This is an open-air performance with an orchestra of their single Aşk İçinde (In Love) from 2020.

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