World Song Contest

With 54 participants, this edition of the World Song Contest broke the record held by WSC .20. As a result, and for the first time, the semi finals consisted in three heats. Once again it was a great battle to qualify with every single vote having an influence, mainly for the last tickets for the final. Anyway, a choice was made and 26 songs qualified. Well in fact, more qualified as Spain didn't vote and was automatically eliminated despite being qualified for the final due to its results in the previous edition.

With 54 songs, you can imagine the diversity of songs, and once again, it was hard to decide. With no real big names in the competition (after Mexico, represented by Santana & Steve Tyler, didn't qualify), everyone has its chance... Well as long as it was a decent song. So, during the live coverage, the lead was taken by several countries. Finland, first, then Liechtenstein, Ukraine and finally the winner, Turkey. And once again, we had to wait until the last votes to know the winner. Some countries achieved another good results, like Belgium which achieved a 4th top 10 position in a row, the 13th one in 25th edition. Only USA appeared so often in the top 10. Liechtenstein reached its first top 10 position and Libya made a great debut reaching the 10th position.

But in the end, Turkey finally took the title, a first victory, thanks to Can Atilla and the song Cariyeler Ve Geceler. Ukraine took the silver medal, and Finland the bronze.

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THE WINNER

Country: Turkey
Artist(s): Can Atilla
Song: Cariyeler Ve Geceler

Can Atilla was born in Ankara in 1969. In 1980, he started to attend the violin class of Hacettepe University, Ankara State Conservatory, and graduated with BA degree in 1990. In Turkey, he participated in numerous competition, festival and music organizations as composer, arranger and conductor. His debut solo album, "Bilinçaltý" was released in 1992 and his second solo album, "Waves of Wheels" was released in 1994 in Turkey, and in United Kingdom and Europe by Midas Records Ltd. In 1995, his third solo album, "Efsaneler", and in 1996, the symphonic album version of the play score, "Kuvayi Milliye Destaný", were released. With this work, he was awarded "Avni Dilligil Best Original Play Score". In 1999, his album "AVE" was released in the Netherlands by Eat Records. In 1997, he prepared the original scores of the movie "Bir Erkeðin Anatomisi", a film by Yavuz Özkan. For Ankara State Theatre, he prepared the original play scores of the plays "Büyük Misafir" in 1996, "4. Murat" in 1997, "Kanlý Düðün", "Ya Devlet Baþa Ya Kuzgun Leþe" and "Liola" in 1998, "Goya", "Balerin", "Aþk Öldürür" and "Kanaviçe" in 1999, and "Tanrýlar Erkek Olunca", "Abelard ve Heloise", "Andora" in 2000, GHETTO (Yön:Erhan Gökgücü), HAYDUTLAR (Yön:Selçuk Sazak), SEVDALI BULUT (Yön:Selçuk Sazak), MASALLARDA YENIDEN (Yön:Cahit Çagiran) and BIR CEZA AVUKATININ ANILARI Yön:Cemil Özbayer) in 2001. He has prepared numerous scores within a period of more than ten years for the dramas and documentaries made for television channels, and currently continues to prepare. His essays were published in many art periodicals under the title "Visual Music". At the beginning of 1999, he made a contract with "Eat Records" in the Netherlands, and efforts for releasing his albums world-wide were commenced. Within the same year, he released his soundtrack album "ALBATROS" in Turkey. He prepared the scores of the film "Kuruluþ - Osmancýk", which was re-edited as a movie for the 700th anniversary of the Ottoman Empire from the TRT television series directed by Yücel Çakmaklý. The scores of this movie was prepared, for the first time in Turkey, using "Multitrack Orchestral Dubbing" method, a method used for recording movie scores in Hollywood and Europe. For this method, in which electronic instruments are combined with actual instruments, a mixed orchestra was formed for the live recordings and this orchestra was conducted by Can Atilla. Can Atilla currently continues his works with many young musicians at POeM Müzik, his studio in Ankara.