When the 1983 entries were presented in my local newspaper, the description of the Turkish entry went something along the lines of this: "After the national final, the national press was disappointed as they believed it could be hard for the selected song to win in Munich."
That could very well qualify as the understatement of the century.
From beginning to end, this creation is a complete mess that can't make its mind up whether to be a parody or a hommage, or indeed whether to be opera or something completely different. Nobody in their right minds could for a single moment have thought this song capable of anything but a splendid and complete fiasco.
In many ways, it is the eurovision equivalent of a disaster movie, a three minute all-singing all-dancing version of "The Towering Inferno" . Terrifying and very entertaining at the same time.
Nul points?
Oh yes. This is the stuff that real nul-pointers are made of. Hysterical and bouncy, calculated but misconcieved, humourous and yet deadly serious. A masterpiece in its own little way.
I only wish Çetin Alp would have been able to see the whole thing from a distance and see all the adorable and naïve charm of this musical shipwreck, but I very much doubt he ever did.
Çetin Alp & The Short Wave - Opera (Turkey 1983)
This is one of my absolute favourite Eurovision songs. Good voice, crazy mess, and as you said adorable naïve charm. I think again it was better than some songs that year and I don't think this deserved 0 points. Maybe only a handful, but not 0.
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