Group to compete for peace in Eurovision Song Contest

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Inchequin members (L to R) Hugh O’Neill, Selin Türkoğlu, Tevfik Kulak and Sinead Bradley will face off against other Irish hopefuls for Eurovision 2013. DAILY NEWS photo

Aiming to send messages of peace and brotherhood to the entire world, a unique musical group formed by Turkish and Irish musicians could soon represent the Emerald Isle at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

The group Inchequin consists of Hugh O’Neill, Sinead Bradley, Tevfik Kulak, Selin Türkoğlu and Ayda Tunçboyacı.

Inchequin will face off against other Irish hopefuls on Feb. 22 for the chance to book a place at Eurovision 2013 in Sweden.

With the song, the group aims to send messages of peace and brotherhood to the entire world.

The bands’ two Irish members, O’Neill and Bradley, have been living in Gümüşlük for seven years. Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News, O’Neill said they were both surprised and delighted when the song, which was written during a holiday in the Aegean town of Bodrum’s Gümüşlük district, was accepted among the Eurovision contestants.

A bridge of friendship

The song’s arranger, Tevfik Kulak, is a composer who has worked with leading symphony orchestras in Turkey for 18 years. “We have always watched the Eurovision Song Contest, but never thought that we would be a part of the contest one day,” Kulak said.

“In this adventure, which we started coincidentally, we will establish a bridge of friendship between Ireland and Turkey, and we are inviting all the peoples of the world to this bridge,” Kulak said, adding that he did not understand why Turkey decided not to attend this year’s contest.

Kulak also said Turks living in European countries had extended them great support and that the song was also attracting people from other nations as well.

“We composed a song together,” said the song’s vocalist, Türkoğlu. “And when its arrangement was finished, Hugh said we should join Eurovision with the song. And we applied for it, but an answer did not come for a long time. When we were about to lose our hope, they announced that we had been accepted. Ours is an amusing, exciting and adventurous journey.”

Türkoğlu said wanted to put an end to the nationalist voting tendencies seen in past Eurovision song competitions.

“In Eurovision, the countries always vote for their neighbors, and a nationalist sense of competition prevails in the contest. If we go on [to the finals], we want to make a revolution in Eurovision by changing that sense. Our target is to give peace messages to humanity,” she said.

“Nationalism sounds very absurd today; all the people are the citizens of this world. We call everyone to believe our sincerity. I hope musicians from different nations will perform and sing together in Eurovision in following years, as well,” Türkoğlu said, adding that she was also sad that Turkey, the 2003 winner, was not going to participate in this year’s contest.

“We feel sorry [for Turkey], but on the other hand, the votes for Turkey will go to Ireland,” Türkoğlu said.