Turkey won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 with Sertab Erener’s “Everyway That I Can.”
Erener performed the upbeat pop song in Riga, Latvia, with four backing vocalists and dancers. The staging and choreography helped the entry stand out in a contest increasingly shaped by strong visual performances.
Turkey received 167 points and finished ahead of Belgium and Russia. The victory was Turkey’s first in Eurovision after many years of participation, beginning with its debut in 1975.
The song was mainly performed in English, reflecting the language rule that had been relaxed in the 1990s. Sertab Erener was already a major Turkish pop singer before Eurovision and became an important figure in the country’s modern music scene.