The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — are reviewing the top three tracks from every year in the last decade of the Eurovision Song Contest to see who is the winner of the 2010s. Today we swing by Istanbul, Turkey to rank rock band maNga‘s anthemic belter “We Could Be The Same”.
Undoubtedly the most successful rock song of the decade, Turkey’s maNga gave us high-energy, robots and unique pyro. In some of the best staging ever seen at Eurovision, the band brought a blockbuster arena gig to the contest taking us to another world for three minutes (and all the time after that where we sat there shook).
Sadly it was one of Turkey’s last entries, with only two more appearances after (one of which was a non-qualifier). But what a way to leave a lasting impression, making us desperate for a comeback. Will the rock sound still sound as epic to our ears in 2019? Read on below to find out!
maNga – “We Could Be the Same”
“We Could Be The Same” reviews
Antranig: “We Could Be the Same” features in my top three songs of the decade alongside “If Love Was a Crime” and “Fuego”. This song is just extraordinary in every aspect. The studio version is infectious and the live performance threw everything but the kitchen sink at Eurovision. I could throw many more superlatives at this song and I would’ve been really disappointed it didn’t win ,if not for the fact that the winner was almost equally amazing. Come back Turkey, nobody does Eurovision quite like you.
Score: 10/10
Lucy: It must be said, I do love a rock song at Eurovision – I unironically love “Midnight Gold”, so going in I was always going to be a cheerleader for this. But there’s something about “We Could Be the Same” that is the elite of a 2010s rock entry to Eurovision. It isn’t the only rock entry to grace the top three this decade for no reason. They filled the arena and made it the maNga show with solid vocals and a belting guitar riff. The staging is definitely in the Eurovision vein with a gimmick no-one will ever forget in the shape of a robot peeling away layers to reveal a woman, bringing the words Fifty Shades to mind. I’m still 100% on board with this a decade later, and wish Turkey would come back with something equally anthemic (so no Can Bonomo please, OK?).
Score: 10/10
Deban: “We Could Be the Same” probably contains the most infectious hook of any rock song featured at Eurovision. So, it should be no surprise that it is undoubtedly the most successful song of that genre in the competition. Hopeful in its quest to pursue a different kind of love (I see you dancing like a star/No matter how different we are), maNga have told a beautiful story in an inclusive way. Years on, I still listen to this track and secretly yearn for Turkey’s return to the competition.
Score: 8.5/10
Kristin: When the Turks rocked it out, they rocked it out like there was no tomorrow. “We Could Be The Same” was solid in every aspect, and gave chills all the way. The music genre of alternative/nu metal/rap/rock, in the spirit of Linkin Park, was and has not been seen much on the Eurovision stage, but maNga brought their A-game and still make me want to dance, sing and head slam. This song is just so freaking epic and maNga deserved every single point they got and some more.
Score: 10/10
Steinunn: In most cases, rock songs are the underdog when it comes to this glittery festival of kitsch we call Eurovision. But rock done the Turkish way is usually a recipe for greatness. “We Could Be the Same” is just mainstream enough to get the majority of Europe’s attention without losing its alternative feel. I particularly like the way maNga’s music is a mix of rock, electronic music, hip-hop and a little bit of pop with its Anatolian music heritage. I want Turkey back in Eurovision — they surely are missed.
Score: 8.5/10
Katie: It’s been a long time since Turkey last graced the Eurovision stage, but if any of you are starting to forget why their absence is such a tragedy, all you need to do is watch maNga at Eurovision 2010. Don’t get me wrong, this entry is almost ten years old and it’s certainly aged. The lyrics don’t offer us much, however the reasons we fell in love with the song haven’t been lost in time. The singers are still charming, the melody is still catchy and it still leaves smiles on our faces, which is exactly what we want. And almost ten years later, those dancing robotic knights still have us saying WTF?
Score: 7.5/10
In the Wiwi Jury we have 24 jurors but only have room for six reviews. The remaining scores are below:
| William: 8.5/10
Pablo: 8.5/10 Robyn: 10/10 Angus: 7/10 Sebastian: 6/10 Jonathan: 9/10 Bernardo: 6.5/10 Calvin: 9/10 Luis: 10/10 |
Oliver: 10/10
Edd: 7/10 Lukas: 8/10 Barnabas: 10/10 Florian: 5/10 Natalie: 8.5/10 Julian: 7.5/10 Tom: 7.5/10 Charlotte: 5/10 |
We have removed the highest and lowest scores prior to calculating the average. This is to remove outliers and potential bias. We have removed a low of 5 and a high of 10.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 8.3/10
What do you think of this song? Share your own score and review below!
Should have won. Deserved more than 8.3
This one’s just so very well done. There’s not much more I can say about it. It’s great.
P.S. OTT Eurovision staging at its best. 🙂
Turkey pretty much always delivered great songs, year after year. It’s such a shame they don’t participate any more – the contest is worse off for it. This is one of my favourite ESC tracks of all time. If it had come a year later, maybe it could have beaten Azerbaijan; Satellite just had a special something this year.
Hope Arcade and Euphoria end up in top 2
As a German I would really love this entry, but since nine years I have to read YouTube comments under every “Top/Recap/Throwback”-video about their robbery and them being the “real winner”. And I am allergic against people who say sth alternative is the “real way” 😉 Only one can win, but that does not mean that all other acts are bad. They were fine, Lena was the winner, reality is reality 😀
One of the best acts of the decade! Just brilliant!
This is… rock for people who don’t like rock? Besides its guitar hero moments, it’s more like an energetic and surprisingly Eurovision-suited pop song. It’s highly entertaining, it’s easy for me to get why it’s a fan favorite. They filmed it like it was a concert and it works very well (though we’ve seen other bands in the contest dealing better with the playback issue). Time flies when you’re watching it. The chorus is very catchy, I’ll hum it for the rest of the day. On the other hand, I think the “rapping part” works as a setback.
Linkin Park 2002 revival
My favorite song of the decade!! It inspired me to get into maNga’s other songs (which are all absolutely KILLER), and, in a roundabout way, motivated me to study abroad in Istanbul back in 2013 🙂 maNga is my favorite band and I’m so glad Eurovision introduced me to them!!!
I tried, I really tried… But I did not see the fascination with this song 9 years ago and I fail even more to see it now… As somebody said, it feels like two or three different songs put together and not in a very graceful way and the performance on stage of the lead singer let a lot to be desired. I guess it is the glossy competent pop image that did (and apparently still does) the trick for this entry, for those who like that sort of thing.
I have a couple of contenders for my favorite Turkish entry: Dinle, Deli, and this. There were a couple of really killer top two’s this decade (2014, 2016, 2018, and 2019 all come to mind) but 2010’s one-two punch of Satellite and We Could Be the Same was pretty spectacular. Turkey are at their best when they get out of their heads, don’t just rely on stereotypical Turkish belly dancer imagery just because it brought them their sole win, and rock the heck out. This song is contemporary, hard-edged, and well-performed/staged. Turkey may have hung around for two more years,… Read more »
While I strongly, strooongly disagree with everything else in this comment, I’m totally with you on Dinle and Deli. The lead singer of Deli was perfect for this very intriguing and cerebral song. That one was authentic and would have been a deserving second place. I thank Turkey for sending such good music, it was like the antithesis to Hadise.
My favourite Turkish act is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, “Halay” from 1984. It’s such a cool, ahead of its time entry! I love the progression, the instrumentation, the harmonies, and the presentation is awesome just as well. It’s almost like a theme song from some TV cartoon show. So underrated, it deserved a top 3 finish.
Mine is actually the completely unnoticed 2002 entry, ironically the very last entry before Turkey became this big force to be reckoned with.
“Leylaklar Soldu Kalbinde” was alright, tho a bit messy. I find it similar to their 2000 entry, and I like the latter better.
I like the 2000 entry, too, but that one didn’t have such an epic background group. Btw, is it just me or did the 2002 stage look really great?
Well, ESC 2002 was a really difficult task for Estonia, and you could kinda tell that they spent less money on it than Denmark or Sweden, but at the same time they did the best they could with the budget and venue they had. They made very good use of the lighting and projections. I actually prefer it to the big, yet unremarkable stage from the previous year.
That’s how I saw it, too. Estonia built a very impactful stage in a rather small venue. The 2001 production was just awful, but Denmark made up for it in 2014. Slovenia should have won in 2001 and I wonder if Nusa would have scored better if the camera work hadn’t been so bad and the stage so cold.
Slovenia was really good in 2001 and their victory would have been totally deserved. I don’t think the camera work was bad though – it was just average, nothing standing out, but nothing dragging the act down either. Looking at the EMAs from that time, I think a Eurovision in Slovenia back then would look pretty much the same as the one in Tallinn. I didn’t have a favourite in 2001, but if I had to give the trophy to someone, it would be… Greece probably.
France should have won in 2001.
Should they? Since their victory with the magnificent “L’oiseau et l’enfant”, there was quite a few of French entries that, in my opinion, were worth the first place, most notably 1981, 1990, 1991, 1994 and 2013, but I’m not really into their Celine Dion-style songs they sent in the beginning of the 2000s. I see why some people like them, but to me they’re so unoriginal and just… whatever. However there’s also Patricia Kaas, who showed us the classical French ballad done right, and I love “Et s’il fallait le faire” to bits.
Patricia Kaas should have won with all the points to possibly get. I like France 2001, 2002 and 2003 (the sticky hair were a big lol), SO MUCH MORE than what they choose to send these days. They used to have so much class and I wouldn’t say that sending any ballad in French is automatically Celine Dion-style, a style I can barely stomach anymore.
Yep, I agree they should have won in 1990 & 1991, I’m not so sure about the other years you mention – but there’s no doubt in my mind that 2001 & 2002’s French songs were by far (by far!) the best songs in their years. Patricia Kaas also should have won, I have no argument there, but at least Fairytale had some quality…to lose to Everybody and especially I Wanna is enough to make you despair. At least things have changed now.
I still think Everybody is underrated and deserved to win that year. Latvia deserved their win because they were one of the only countries who gave a damn in that awful year.
Also Joelle Ursull was ROBBED. Best French entry ever.
Unrelated to Turkey, but I’m so surprised to see someone else who loves Life Looks Better In Spring as much as I do!!! It’s so underrated and wonderful )’:
That song deserves just as much praise as Fuego imho. Subtle, very well-sung, back-to-basics stuff. Very refreshing, considering how fond of dance tracks Cyprus is. (And it’s probably the last time they ever nailed a ballad, but they’ve sent some great ones: 1982, 1993, 1994, 1996, and especially 2004 all jump to mind).
Regardless of what you think of the song, you have to admit this had one of the best staging of the decade. You watch the performance and you forget it’s on the Eurovision stage – it feels like it’s being filmed at a maNga show
I wonder how the Turkish delegation managed to avoid any copyright infringement lawsuits for repurposing a Power Rangers helmet in Manga’s live performance.
Then again, that’s free publicity for whoever owned the franchise back in 2010 (Disney, I recall).
This song is too good. The staging, the atmosphere, everything. Also the message, I suppose the song has a romantic theme, could be understand as a unity statement for Europe: “For just one night we could be the same, no matter what they say”
I think “atmospheric” is the perfect word to describe it. There are many (and much) better songs in Eurovision that fail on building a moment. They nailed on this aspect.
I actually found this to be a pretty mediocre pop-rock track when I listened to the studio version. It does come alive when performed at Eurovision though. Cleverly staged and lots of energy. It’s in my personal top ten for 2010 but still, I feel this is one that gets overrated pretty hard by fans. I like it but they need to stop acting like this was an obvious winner getting robbed.
I will never understand why some Eurofans keep “yearning” and “desperately” want Turkey to return to Eurovision. Granted, they have given us good songs, like ‘düm tek tek’, but they have a warped image of the contest. Azerbaijan and Armenia share similar views as Turkey, but at least they do not let those views hinder their participation in a music contest that is all about inclusivity and uniting Europe. And for Pete’s sake, Turkey clearly does not want to be part of Eurovision, yet we keep crying for their return – unrequited love! I am all for “the more the… Read more »
In Turkey, ESC fans don’t have a voice anymore. That is the problem.
So what’s your point exactly? I can understand that you want to see some countries that “want” to return to the contest, but how did you come to the conclusion that Turkey doesn’t want to return?! I’m Turkish and there are lots of Eurovision fans in Turkey, even more than in some countries which are currently participating. It’s TRT that doesn’t want to return because they are still not happy about some facts such as the jury votes etc. Why would it even bother you to see fans yearning for Turkey’s contest?! Although Turkey is not participating since 2013, they… Read more »
I know TRT is probably just unhappy about the jury voting because they see their diaspora votes decreasing, but I actually wish many more countries would voice concerns or even protest the way this shady voting part is being conducted. It may come from the wrong source, but it is very legitimate criticism. I wish Turkey would come back into the game and give the EBU hell as an active participant.
I, personally, don’t say that the jury votes should definetely be abolished, but, honestly, those “juries” are the ones that don’t do what they really should do as jurors, namely to rate entries by their quality, but, in fact, they are the ones who vote politically and overrate some countries no matter what they send. Taking Sweden into account, for example, the juries have and will overrate them no matter what they send, that’s just a fact!! I don’t say that I don’t like Swedish entries or that they don’t deserve a high ranking with the juries, but, how would… Read more »
Some people are very hard to please. This is a great song, and a fine example of the best Turkey has to offer. Perfect staging and clever use of camera effects it has aged well, superb!
I don’t get what’s so good about it. Sounds like a really soft fabric softener version of the music that’s playing on these open air festivals my friends go to. It ain’t rock, not by a long shot! 2nd place seems very, veeeery kind for this. And those lyrics sound like a not very talented kindergarten child’s first attempt at writing a poem.
It’s just an okay pop rock song to me. But compared to Satellite, I’d prefer this to win. At least they put a lof of effort on their staging and it worked.
Yes, it’s a song contest, but you have consider the whole package as well. If it was only about songs, a lot of songs that were fan favorites would have qualified in the past.
Lena’s live performance was entertaining, but compared to Manga’s, it felt a bit dull.
I love Turkey in the Eurovision (and not only in the 2000’s but many of the so-called fans wouldn’t know anything about the history of Turkey in the ESC…), and I really miss the country in Eurovision. But all that no thanks to this entry. The melody line is extremely poor, it is a song that doesn’t know if it’s a cheap pop song or a generic commercial Rock FM tune and then it’s neither. And again this scores shows how tasteless the Wiwijury is and again shows that Antranig is an empty headed cheesy music lover…
I know I’ll get lots of downvotes, cause this entry has many passionate fans, but I just fail to see what’s so great about it. “We Could Be The Same” is a bizzare mix of rock, pop and rap that doesn’t sound right to me – it’s like three random songs put together into one three-minute track, which precludes them from fully shining. “WCBTS” has pretty terrible, childish lyrics (those rhymes… they hurt), and to me their staging is a one big overkill, yet I get that it’s the band’s aesthetic, and thus I don’t find it annoying. To be… Read more »
this is more pop rock than rock (sounds like something p!nk or kelly clarkson would have included in funhouse/all i ever wanted), either way a very good song and one of turkey’s better attempts
Exactly. If we’re talking p!nk level rock, then this is rock. But would you ever see P!nk or Kelly Clarkson at Download Festival?
Sorry, this one falls into the “what’s the point of the bass player” of Eurovision fakeness, as expertly exemplified by Lake Malawi this year. An act pretending it’s a rock band but actually being pop and playing the “rock/alternative” card. I can’t get over the artificialness. This is about as rock as Kelly Clarkson (I like her, but she’s not rock).
Pop alternative?