Joan Franka

Ayten Kalan or better known as Joan Franka (born April 2, 1990 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch singer of Turkish descent, who will represent the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan. She became famous in the Netherlands through her participation in the first series of the talent show, The Voice of Holland. In September 2010, Joan Franka entered the talent show, The Voice of Holland in its inaugural 2010-2011 season where she auditioned with Nickelback's "How You Remind Me". Two of two judges hit their "I Want You" buttons, judges Roel van Velzen and Jeroen van der Boom. She chose to be on van Velzen's team. In the Battle round, she was put against Yvette de Bie. They both sang "One of Us" and she was kept to move to the live shows with de Bie being eliminated. In first live show, she sang Jewel's "Foolish Games" and in third live show Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis" and in fifth live show Beverley Craven's "Promise Me" when she was eliminated. Two of the songs she sang during the competition charted as minor hits in the Dutch Singles Chart. "Foolish Games" reached #42 and "Promise Me" #45 based on downloads. On February 26, 2012, Joan battled against Raffaëla Paton on the first round of Nationaal Songfestival 2012 and eventually advanced to the final round where she was eventually chosen to represent the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Despite coming last with the jury vote of 11 she led the televotes with 26.1 points which resulted in her victory. The song was released in the Netherlands on February 27, 2012 as a Music download on iTunes. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.