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Ayşe Ajda Pekkan (born February 12, 1946 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a Turkish pop music singer and actress. Through an illustrious career spanning five decades thus far, Ajda has released over 20 albums and is the most commercially successful Turkish Music artist. She is nicknamed "Superstar" and sometimes "The Queen of Turkish pop music".
Early life
Ajda was born to Rıdvan Pekkan, an officer in the Turkish Navy, and
Nevin Dobruca, a housewife. She spent her childhood at the Gölcük naval
base. Ajda graduated from Çamlıca Kız Lisesi, a high school for girls
only, in Istanbul.
Career
With the help of her sister, Semiramis, she started singing at the
popular Istanbul nightclub Çatı (Roof) in 1962. The next year, Ajda won
the Cover Star contest of the Turkish music magazine Ses (Sound) and
thus began her professional career.
From 1963 to 1967, she acted in 47 films opposite popular Turkish
actors, mostly in singer roles. Ajda’s first recording, Her Yerde Kar
Var, an arrangement of Salvatore Adamo's Tombe la Neige by Fecri
Ebcioğlu, brought her great success in 1965. Contrary to other artists,
she transited from film to music, and in 1968, her record İki Yabancı
(Two Strangers) became a top seller. Ajda’s continuing success resulted
in invitations to international festivals such as to the 1968 and 1969
Apollonia Music Festival in Athens, Greece and to 1969 Mediterranean
Song Festival in Barcelona, Spain.
The success of her songs resulted in a series of Turkish-language
concerts with Enrico Macias at the Paris Olympia hall in 1976. In
acknowledgement of her nickname, Ajda released an album named Superstar
in 1977. The same year, she participated in the Yamaha Music Festival
in Tokyo, Japan to great success. In addition to her German and French
records released in Europe in the early 1970s, she recorded Pour Lui,
which became very successful in France. At the pinnacle of her career,
she released her second album Superstar 2 in 1979.
On April 19, 1980, Ajda represented Turkey with the entry Pet'r Oil at
the Eurovision Song Contest in Den Haag, the Netherlands. Ajda decided
to take a break and temporarily moved to the USA. After returning to
Turkey, she recorded two failed albums, Sen Mutlu Ol (Just Be Happy)
and Sevdim Seni (I Loved You) in the new trend of Turkish music, but
returned to her original type of Western pop and gave concerts in 1983
with enormous success. That same year, she released Superstar ‘83 which
she followed with Superstar ‘87. “Superstar 1987” was a huge success
and, coincidentally, is her only album that is not available on CD.
In late 1989, she began working on her new album with famous Turkish
musicians, such as Fuat Güner from MFÖ (the band which represented
Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1985 and 1988), Şehrazat, and
Metin Özülkü. The album, simply titled Ajda 1990 was a big breakthrough
for Ajda, with sales of over a million. With the success of this
official debut album (and also the first on CD), she immediately began
working on her next album.
In 1991, she released Seni Seçtim (I Picked You), to even greater
success. Hits like Sevgide Seni Seçtim (I Picked You For Love), Eline
Gözüne Dizine Dursun (That’s Way Much Enough of You), Vazgeçme (Don’t
Give Up), she topped all the charts in Turkey.
In 1993, she released the album Ajda ‘93. She recorded this album in
Switzerland, Turkey and USA. In this album, she worked with Atilla
Şereftuğ, a famous Turkish musician who had written the Eurovision
’88-winning song Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi (Don’t Leave Without Me) for
Céline Dion.
After many successful albums she decided to release a best of album, and in 1998, she released The Best of Ajda.
In 2001, she started performing in an Istanbul club Catwalk and her
performances were all sold out, with the help of the eager audience,
who were looking forward to see "the superstar" after a three year
hiatus. The performances were so successful that Ajda postponed the
deadline of the show by about six months.
In 2002, she also started making a movie called Şöhret Sandalı (Boat of
Fame). After several years of financial setbacks, it was released in
2006.
In the summer 2003, she released her single Sen İste (Just Want It), written by her friend Şehrazat, the popular songwriter.
In 2006, Ajda released her latest album Cool Kadın (Cool Woman). This
album produced the number one dance hit single Vitrin and a funky disco
beat called "Amazon".
In the summer 2007 she started a completely sold out concert series
called Ajda goes Disco performing her songs in disco rythms with
Turkey's most famous DJs live on stage. She is reportedly working in
the studio, recording her next album which is likely to be released in
2008.
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