Yes, I have to blog about Mor Ve Ötesi, a new favourite band of mine, here too because I am very curious to see if/how their PR will follow the step to internationality now.
Mor Ve who?
Mor Ve Ötesi
Mor Ve Ötesi is a Turkish rockband who – already very famous in their homecountry – has made another big step to international attention by representing Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. Their song “Deli” stood out of the mass of the usual song contest mainstream and without the point-nepotism they would definitely have won. But anyway… joining the contest made them famous all over Europe overnight.
A great start
Their multilingual contest website “delirium” (with blog!) was a great example how a good web representation could look like.
But this website has not been updated since May 2008 anymore. Why haven’t they gone on with it? It’s not only pleasant to look at but informative and well coded.
official website
So what now?
The only alternative now is to visit the band’s offical website. But this website obviously has not been prepared for the run of not-Turkish-speaking people who’d like to find out more about this band – apart from “Deli”.
morveotesi.com is still available in Turkish only! There is a link “ENG” but it leads to the band’s myspace which at least provides some biographical information in English.
Btw. if you click on “Join the mor ve ötesi email list” there, you get to a Turkish form. Does that mean the mails will be in Turkish too? Why join then? And if the list is in English, why is there no English form then? Help! Or should I say: yardım!
CD "Büyük Düsler"
The language gap
What about the lyrics? What do they mean? Searching their myspace for a helping link doesn’t leed to success.
I posted a comment asking about it and got a private message (thank you guys!) telling me about the fan-forum, where some people have posted their own translations. But was that an answer to my posting or a mass mail? And why haven’t they used the bulletin function then too?
And on that fan forum I still had to search for the lyrics section (which is placed in “Multimedia” where you’d expect videos, mp3s etc.) . Within the lyrics thread I still had to search through all the posts to find the good translations. Well, the forum seems to in the beginning only, so things might improve with time.
Mor Ve Ötesi fan forum
Webdesign
The good thing in Mor Ve Ötesi’s web presences is the fact that they have tried to follow a corporate design for all their websites. The bad thing is that they use the cover layout of the band’s last album “Büyük Düşler” which isn’t really apt for that…
In contrary to many of the band’s stylish videos and booklets the cover background made of glass boxes just doesn’t look very appealing. And does that mean they’ll change every design with the next album again? They’ll better improve the coding and text-layout then too.
Hopes
As I said in the beginning: I’m hoping for improvements for the band’s sake. These guys rock and deserve a more lively and update representation on the web! The above mentioned facts are not difficult to change, so why not go for it? All that is needed is a good concept, some structure and multiple language versions. Guys: I’ll gladly help if you want me to! 
Hello there Nette, I’ve had a good listen and musically I do like this band but generally speaking, I need to understand the lyrics to my music, to truly connect with it. There are a few exceptions to this rule for example Sigur Ros (insert your own accent).
I’m sure you would do a great job with their PR and while you’re at it, could you give a-ha.com a more lively and updated representation too
Keep blogging and have a good weekend.
Debbie x
Hi Debbie!
I might blog about a-ha (and Justin Currie of course!) too some time. But as this entry is about Mor Ve Ötesi, could you pm or email me about what you mean concerning a-ha.com?
And thanks for your faith in me concerning PR!
Hello Nette!
I like the band, although coming from the even heavier end of music. I’m sure that they are really great playing live. Wonder why they don’t have space on magazins like rock hard…
You really SHOULD help them with their PR!
Thomas
Thank you again!
Apart from articles concerning the ESC appearance (!) there is not much to find on the web (if not in Turkish). There are a few biographies out there but at first glance I couldn’t find any reviews yet.
They are listed in English and German wikipedia (btw. two of the band members have been to the German highschool in Istanbul) and apparently they have been touring through the US in 2007 too.
The only connection to Rock magazines I could find so far is the fact that Mor Ve Ötesi was named “Best Album of the Year” by Turkish RollingStone and “Best Rock Album of the Year” by Turkish Blue Jean magazine.
If anyone has more information, please let me know!