Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The Turkvision 2015 Song Contest aiming to promote contemporary Turkic pop-music ended in Istanbul last week.

The competition, inspired by the format of the Eurovision Song Contest, was attended by 21 countries and regions with predominantly Turkic population or where Turkic languages are widespread.

The winner of the contest became Kyrgyz entry Zhiydesh Idirisova, who gained 194 points in the final singing “Kim bilet” song.

The Kazakh and Turkish singers placed second and third respectively.

Azerbaijan was represented by Mehman Tagiyev with the song titled “Istanbul” who took the seventh place.

After a year break Belarus, Kosovo and Northern Cyprus rejoined the competition. Serbia and Syria also competed this year.

The TURKVISION Song Contest was launched by TMB TV which has been carrying out projects to strengthen ties among Turkic peoples through various cultural and artistic projects since its establishment.

It has become the symbol of peace, brotherhood and friendship among Turkic peoples, which is not constrained by geography, and unites Turkic-speaking peoples of the planet.

Unlike, Eurovision Song Contest in which the winning country proceeds to host the following year's event, hosting of the Turkvision Song Contest takes place in the country or region that is also hosting the Turkish Capital of Culture.

In the first Turkvision Song Contest 2013 was attended by twenty-four countries and regions.

Azerbaijani singer Farid Hasanov won the first contest of the Turkic states. The young singer won the contest's final with 210 points after heartily performing the song "Yasha" (Live), composed by Govhar Hasanzade.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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