Muazzez Ersoy is a
TurkishTurkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
classicalClassical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
and
folkFolk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
singer.
Biography
Hatice Yıldız Levent was born on August 9, 1958 in
IstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
to Yaşar and Fatma Levent. Her family originally comes from a
Black SeaThe Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
town in
KastamonuKastamonu is the capital district of the Kastamonu Province, Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 102,059 of which 64,606 live in the urban center of Kastamonu. The district covers an area of , and the town lies at an elevation of...
. His father Yaşar was a taxi driver. She married in 1975, when she was just 17 years old. However, this was short lived when she and her husband divorced after she gave birth to their first son. She got a job at a cosmetics company and also pursued classical musical training at this time.
Music
In 1990 she decided to become a professional singer and took the professional name 'Muazzez Ersoy' after signing a record contract with Elenor Plak.
Muazzez AbacıMuazzez Abacı is a Turkish singer. Trained in Turkish classical music, she has achieved considerable popular success in the Arabesk genre.- External links :*...
and
Bülent ErsoyBülent Ersoy is a transgender Turkish celebrity and popular singer of Ottoman classical music. Over the years, Ersoy has become a symbol for the increased tolerance for LGBT figures in Turkish media....
are two of the leading singers of modern Turkish classical music. Her first album called 'Seven Olmaz ki' was released after one year. Her success kept increasing with her later albums 'Herşeyim Sensin', 'Sizi Seviyorum' and 'Sensizlik'. In 1995, she released a series of albums named 'Nostalji' (
TurkishTurkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
for "Nostalgia"). The second chapter of the 'Nostalji' series, called 'Nostalji 4-5-6', was released in 1998, and is among the most popular Turkish musical albums ever made with over 5 million sales in
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
.
Awards
Ersoy has been given countless awards and accoloades, among them the honour of "
National ArtistNational Artist is a honorary title issued by some states as a highest recognition of artists for their significant contributions to the cultural heritage of the nation....
" by the Turkish ministry of culture. She became a goodwill ambassador for the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in 2006.
External links