She reached 4th place for Turkey at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow with her ethno-pop number “Düm Tek Tek” and is now ready to return to the Eurovision Song Contest – although this time, not as a performer.
Flemish broadcaster VRT has announced that Hadise will team up with Melodifestivalen supervisor and show producer for the 2015 contest, Christer Björkman as well as three other established names to become ‘expert panelists’ for Eurosong 2016, the national final to select the country’s representative for Stockholm.
The show’s presenter Peter van de Veire made the announcement during an interview with songfestival.be and made it clear that whilst the panelists will be there to give the contestants advice and constructive cricism, they would not have any say in the final result. The winner will be decided by televoting and a European jury.
Since her stint at Eurovision, Hadise has maintained success in Turkey with the release of three Turkish albums. She is also a full time judge on O Ses Türkiye, the country’s version of The Voice which is currently airing its fifth season. Most recently, Hadise was congratulated after becoming only the second Eurovision artist in history to reach over 100 million views on YouTube with her single Prenses.
Christer Björkman has been just as busy, organising the 2016 edition of Melodifestivalen and working with SVT with preparations for the 61st Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurosong 2016 takes place on 17th January.
