Candan Erçetin (; born 10 February 1961) is a Turkish singer-songwriter. Over the twenty five years of her singing career, she has been recognized for preparing and singing songs about human life. Despite the fact that she made her albums without much publicity, her work influenced other artists. Erçetin has released many music videos with different themes. Because her family originate from the Balkans, she has often used elements of

Balkan music Balkan music is a type of music found in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. In its broadest sense, it encompasses a variety of music styles across the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo ...

in her songs and works. In addition to Turkish, she has written songs in French and Greek. Erçetin was born in

Kırklareli Kırklareli () is a city in the East Thrace, European part of Turkey. It is the seat of Kırklareli Province and Kırklareli District.Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

and Macedonian descent. She later moved to

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

and attended

Galatasaray High School Galatasaray High School (, ), established in Istanbul in 1481, is the oldest and Selective school, highly selective high school in Turkey. It is also the second-oldest Turkish educational institution after Istanbul University, which was establi ...

. In the following years she received voice training. She later studied classical archeology at

Istanbul University Istanbul University, also known as University of Istanbul (), is a Public university, public research university located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Mehmed II on May 30, 1453, a day after Fall of Constantinople, the conquest of Constantinop ...

. In her final year at school, she recorded the song " Halley" and represented Turkey at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1986 The Eurovision Song Contest 1986 was the 31st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Bergen, Norway, following the country's victory at the with the song "La det swinge" by Bobbysocks! Organised by the European Broadcasting Unio ...

with the group Klips ve Onlar. However, she did not want to continue her musical career and kept studying archeology. In 1995, she released her debut album '' Hazırım'', and in 1997 her song "Yalan" from the album ''

Çapkın ''Çapkın'' (''Womanizer'') is Candan Erçetin's second studio album. Most of the lyrics written by Mete Özgencil. The album sold 74,000 copies in Turkey. The song "Yalan" made a huge success all over Turkey.Elbette'', followed by the hit song "Gamsız Hayat" from the album '' Neden'' (2002). She subsequently released numerous other albums including '' Melek'' (2004), '' Kırık Kalpler Durağında'' (2009) and '' Milyonlarca Kuştuk...'' (2013). Alongside these works, she has released the albums '' Chante Hier Pour Aujourd'hui'' (2003) and '' Aranjman 2011'' (2011), which include French songs, and the album '' Aman Doktor'' (2005) that features Greek songs. Apart from her music career, Erçetin has been involved in various other projects. In 1994, she started working as a TV presenter, and in 2007 she produced her own program ''Candan Erçetin'le Beraber ve Solo Şarkılar''. In 2005, she was cast in a leading role in the musical ''Yıldızların Altında''. She also composed the musics for the movies ''Gölgesizler'' (2008) and ''Kaptan Feza'' (2009) and served as a producer as well. She had a stint teaching music at

, and in 2009, she started to teach diction at Galatasaray University. On 25 June 2013, Ünal Aysal appointed Erçetin and Umit Özdemir as Vice Chairmen of Galatasaray S.K. For her contributions to France–Turkey relations, Erçetin was awarded with the Order of Arts and Letters by French President

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. Before his presidency, he was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of th ...

in 2014. Throughout her career, she has won many awards and received various nominations.

Life and career

1961–94: Early life and career beginnings

Erçetin was born on 10 February 1961 in

and Macedonian ancestry. She finished her early education in Kırklareli. At the age of 11, Erçetin won a scholarship and moved to Istanbul on her own to attend the

. In 1978, she went to Istanbul Municipality Singing School and took singing lessons. In 1986, she represented Turkey at the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

together with the group Klips ve Onlar. They performed the song " Halley" and at the time got the best result Turkey had ever had in that competition. In 1990, she performed the song "Daha Kolay" together with Cihan Okan at the Eurovision Turkey finals, and in 1992 she again took part in the competition by performing the song "Kimbilir Nerdesin" with Sinan Erkoç.

1995–99: ''Hazırım'' and ''Çapkın''

Erçetin's first album, '' Hazırım'' was released in August 1995. The album, which consists of 12 songs, includes songs by famous artists such as

Sezen Aksu Sezen Aksu (; born Fatma Sezen Yıldırım; 13 July 1954) is a Turkish singer, songwriter and producer. She is one of the most successful Turkish people, Turkish singers, having sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Her nicknames include the "Q ...

, Yusuf Tümley, and mostly Gökhan Kırdar. The songs "Sevdim Sevilmedim" and "Umrumda Değil (Mix)" were included on the second version of the album. Separate music videos were made for the songs "Umrumda Değil", "Hangi Aşk Adil Ki", "Vakit Varken", "Daha", "Nar Çiçeği" and "Sevdim Sevilmedim" from the album. The album '' Sevdim Sevilmedim'', which was released in 1996, is Erçetin's first remix EP. In addition to six new songs, the remixed version of the songs "Umrumda Değil" and "Sevdim Sevilmedim" from her first album were featured on this album as well. Erçetin later started to release remix albums for all her future albums. Her second studio album, ''

Çapkın ''Çapkın'' (''Womanizer'') is Candan Erçetin's second studio album. Most of the lyrics written by Mete Özgencil. The album sold 74,000 copies in Turkey. The song "Yalan" made a huge success all over Turkey.Oyalama Artık'', was released which included remixed version of the songs "Oyalama Artık", "Aşkı Ne Sandın", "Kaybettik Biz" and "Onlar Yanlış Biliyor". A new music video for "Oyalama Artık" was recorded as well.

1999–03: ''Elbette'', ''Neden'' and ''Chante Hier Pour Aujourd'hui''

By March 1998, Erçetin stated that she had started to make plans for her next album and said: "We are looking for a new sound in the world by following where the music industry is going, but the outline will not change much. In short, it will consist of songs that I like." In August 1999, it was learned that the new album was intended to be released at the beginning of autumn and five songs were already recorded. Despite her efforts, the album was not released in 1999 and was released in 2000 instead. Erçetin's third studio album ''Elbette'' was released on 30 November 1999 by Topkapı Müzik. Mete Özgencil wrote the lyrics for eight of the songs. Erçetin herself composed six of the songs. She also rerecorded Güzide Kasacı's 1960 song " Unut Sevme" and included it on her album. ''Elbette'' was the best-selling album in Turkey for weeks. By the end of 2000, the album sold more than 1 million copies, becoming the best-selling of the year. Music critics had a positive reaction to the album, saying that the personality of the singer is integrated into her work and the audience travels with her into different worlds. Abdullah Kılıç from '' Zaman'' revealed "Dünya Durma" and "Unut Sevme" from the album as the most listened songs of 2000. In December 2009, ''Elbette'' was chosen as the Best Turkish Album of the 2000s by NTV's music judges. In 2001, Erçetin, who was presenting the program ''Günlük Hayat'' on NTV, recorded the song "Sevdan Olmasa" for the album ''Yadigâr'' as a tribute to

Melih Kibar Melih Kibar (6 September 1951 – 7 April 2005) was a Turkish composer. Biography Born in Istanbul, he graduated from the German High School Istanbul and studied chemical engineering at Boğaziçi University. He received a Master's degree from ...

.''Yadigâr'' (album booklet). Çeşitli Sanatçılar. MOD Müzik, Yavuz Plak. 2001. 8697869701005. On 17 May 2002, her fourth studio album '' Neden'' was released by Topkapı Müzik together with a perfumed disc. With the release of this album, Mete Özgencil, who had collaborated with Erçetin since the album ''Hazırım'', stopped working with her. Music critics found ''Neden'' different from the artist's previous works. The plain and simple lyrics of the song "Elbette" from her previous album was the dominant theme in this new album. Music videos were made for the album's hit lead single "Gamsız Hayat" as well as the song "Parçalandım". MÜ-YAP gave a certification to the album due to its successful performance on the sales charts. Remixed version of the songs from ''Neden'' were included in Erçetin's 2003

remix album A remix album is an album consisting of remixes or rerecorded versions of an artist's earlier released material. The first act who employed the format was American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson ('' Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'', 1971). As of 200 ...

. In 2003, she released the album '' Chante Hier Pour Aujourd'hui'', which featured French songs with modern arrangements. She also appeared on the first episode of

Show TV Show TV is a Turkish free-to-air national television channel, established in 1991 by Erol Aksoy, Dinç Bilgin, Haldun Simavi and Erol Simavi, owned by the Can Holding. History The channel replaces Cine5's now-defunct frequencies, and it was ...

's series ''Hayat Bilgisi''.

2004–12: ''Melek'', ''Aman Doktor'', ''Kırık Kalpler Durağında'' and ''Aranjman 2011''

The preparations for Erçetin's fifth studio album '' Melek'' started immediately after the release of ''Neden''. Twenty-five songs were prepared for this album, eleven of which were eventually included in the album. The album was released on 17 June 2004 by Pasaj Müzik. ''Melek'' was Erçetin's first album that was not produced by Topkapı Müzik but by a different production company. Musician Ceza was featured on the song "Şehir". According to the music critics the songs could be listened to by anyone form any group of the society and the album became the best-selling album in Turkey's D&R list of best-selling albums on 27 June 2004 and topped the charts for several weeks. The album sold 406,000 copies in 2004 and received a gold certification from MÜ-YAP. In the same year, Erçetin together with

Beyazıt Öztürk Beyazıt Öztürk (born 12 March 1969), also known as Beyaz, is a Turkish television personality, standup comedian and actor. He was the host of '' Beyaz Show'', a popular Turkish talk show. In 2018, he became one of the judges on ''O Ses Türki ...

, Ceza, Nev and Harem performed in 17 different cities for 23 days as a part of

Fanta Fanta () is an American-owned brand of fruit-flavored carbonated soft drinks created by Coca-Cola Deutschland under the leadership of German businessman Max Keith. There are over 200 flavors worldwide. Fanta originated in Germany as a Co ...

Youth Festival. In 2004, she was among the artists featured on the album ''Söz Vermiş Şarkılar'' in tribute to

Murathan Mungan Murathan Mungan (born 21 April 1955) is a Turkish author, short story writer, playwright, and poet. Biography Mungan's family originates from Mardin. His father is an Arab and mother is a Bosniak. After receiving his BA from the Faculty of L ...

and performed the song "Çember".''Söz Vermiş Şarkılar'' (album booklet). Çeşitli Sanatçılar. ADA Müzik. 2004. 8692646502677. In July 2005, a remix version of ''Melek'', titled '' Remix'5'', was released by Pasaj Müzik. In early 2005, she was cast in a leading role opposite Beyazıt Öztürk on the musical ''Yıldızların Altında'', and later that year on 9 December her new album '' Aman Doktor'' was released by DMC. The album included Turkish-Greek cultural songs. One part of the album contains Turkish songs, while the other part features Greek songs. ''Aman Doktor'' topped the sales charts in Turkey and sold 105,000 copies in 2005 and 49,500 copies in 2006. As the album sold more than 100,000 copies, it received a gold certification from MÜ-YAP. In June 2006 Erçetin, appeared on the 68th episode of the TV series '' Yabancı Damat'' and sang at the wedding ceremony of the characters Eftelya and Memik. In 2007–08 she presented her own program ''Beraber ve Solo Şarkılar'' on

TRT 1 TRT 1 (''TRT One'') is the first Turkish national television channel, owned by state broadcaster TRT. It was officially launched on 31 January 1968 as a test broadcast, becoming regular by the early 1970s. It was the only channel Turkey until 15 ...

. Meanwhile she was featured on the albums of other artists and performed the songs "Gelmiyorsun" for the album ''Çeyrek'' (2007) and "Kim" for the album ''Söz Müzik Teoman'' (2008). In July–August 2007, she again went on a tour together with Beyazıt Öztürk for the Fanta Youth Festival and performed at 17 different concerts. In August 2007, she took part in the "Our Hearts Strike On The Street" project for animals and with the likes of

Ajda Pekkan Ayşe Ajda Pekkan (; born 12 February 1946) is a Turkish singer. She is known by the title "superstar" in the Turkish media. Pekkan became a prominent figure of Turkish pop music with her songs, in which she tried to create a strong female figure. ...

, Hande Yener,

and Yaşar performed at a concert in Turkcell Kuruçeşme Arena. Erçetin served as the producer for the movie ''Gölgesizler'', which was released in January 2009. The song, "Ben Kimim" which was prepared for the movie, was released in November 2008. The song remained on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

''s Türkçe Top 20 for 15 weeks and ranked second on the list. The song was later included in her sixth studio album '' Kırık Kalpler Durağında''. The album was released after "5 years, 5 months, and 27 days of silence" on 16 December 2009 by Pasaj Müzik. More than 100,000 copies of the album were ordered and it topped Turkey's D&R Best-Selling list. Erçetin rerecorded the late Esmeray's song "Unutama Beni" and included it in the album. The lyrics for the song "Gözler" featured parts of the poems by

Neyzen Tevfik Tevfik Kolaylı (March 24, 1879 – January 28, 1953), better known by his pen name Neyzen Tevfik (often misrendered as "Neyzen Teyfik"), was a Turkish poet, satirist, and ''neyzen'' (a " ney performer" in Turkish). Tevfik was born in Bodru ...

and

Omar Khayyam Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīshābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131) (Persian language, Persian: غیاث الدین ابوالفتح عمر بن ابراهیم خیام نیشابورﻯ), commonly known as Omar ...

. Music critics gave generally positive reviews for this album that came after Erçetin's hiatus; the singer's intellectual way was seen in this work as well and the compositions were praised too. The songs "Kader", "Kırık Kalpler Durağında" and "Git" (written by Cemal Safi) were the songs for which separate music videos were made. Out of these songs, "Kader" was featured on the movie ''Kaptan Feza''s soundtrack in 2010. In 2011, she released her Turkish-French album '' Aranjman 2011'', and in 2012 she was among the artists who were featured on

Orhan Gencebay Orhan Gencebay (born 4 August 1944) is a Turkish people, Turkish musician, bağlama virtuoso, composer, singer, arranger, record producer, music producer, music director, and actor. Gencebay was born in the coastal town of Samsun on 4 August 194 ...

's album ''Orhan Gencebay ile Bir Ömür'' in honor of his sixty years of career and performed the song "Beni Böyle Sev".''Orhan Gencebay ile Bir Ömür'' (album booklet). Çeşitli Sanatçılar. Poll Production. 2012. 8699466000550.

2013–present: ''Milyonlarca Kuştuk...'' and ''Ah Bu Şarkıların Gözü Kör Olsun''

On 31 May 2013, Galatasaray S.K.'s president Ünal Aysal announced at the club-owned channel Galatasaray TV that Candan Erçetin was admitted to the sport club's newly formed board. She was appointed vice president of the club following the board elections at the extraordinary general assembly held on 22 June 2013. In July 2014 it was announced that she would be a board member of the club's basketball team for the next season. Erçetin began the preparations for her seventh studio album in 2011, and after one year of producing and recording she released it quietly on 3 June 2013 with the title '' Milyonlarca Kuştuk...''. Due to the Gezi Park protests, the album's promotions were postponed and the promotions were initially made only on the artist's website and the music company's website. The album's title and its lead single were inspired by the legend of

Simurgh The simurgh (; ; also spelled ''senmurv, simorgh, simorg'', ''simurg'', ''simoorg, simorq'' or ''simourv'') is a benevolent bird in Persian mythology and Persian literature, literature. It bears some similarities with mythological birds from di ...

. For this album, Erçetin chose

Nâzım Hikmet Mehmed Nâzım Ran (17 January 1902 – 3 June 1963), Note: 403 Forbidden error received 10 October 2022. commonly known as Nâzım Hikmet (), was a Turkish people, Turkish poet, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, and memoirist. ...

's poem "Bence Şimdi Sen De Herkes Gibisin" and turned it into a song. The album topped D&R's best-selling list and by the end of 2013 sold 50,000 copies, becoming Turkey's fifth best-selling album. With 54,790 downloads on the digital platforms, it became Turkey's tenth most downloaded album of the year. In January 2014, Erçetin received the Order of Arts and Letters medal from the French President

for her contributions to France–Turkey relations. On 12 December 2014, she appeared on Beyazıt Öztürk's show '' Beyaz Show'' during which Öztürk showed a parody version of her song "

Git Git () is a distributed version control system that tracks versions of files. It is often used to control source code by programmers who are developing software collaboratively. Design goals of Git include speed, data integrity, and suppor ...

". Erçetin later responded with another parody based on the same song and this turned into a comedy duet between the two artists. In the weeks during their battle of words Demet Akbağ, Derya Şensoy, Esra Erol, Gupse Özay and Saba Tümer appeared on one of Erçetin's parodies titled "women solidarity" to which Öztürk responded with another parody titled "men solidarity", featuring Ali İhsan Varol, Emre Karayel, Hayko Cepkin, Mustafa Üstündağ, Nuri Alço and Ümit Besen. The battle of words ended on 23 January 2015, when Erçetin appeared on ''Beyaz Show'' again and performed a duet with Öztürk. ''

Sözcü ''Sözcü'' (English: ''Spokesperson'') is a popular Turkish daily newspaper. ''Sözcü'' was first published on 27 June 2007 by Burak Akbay and is distributed nationwide. As of June 2018, it was one of the top-selling newspapers in Turkey, with ...

'' noted that Erçetin's popularity increased considerably thanks to these musical duets, and that in the weeks of the musical battle the singer became one of the most searched names on Google in Turkey and the likes of her Facebook page increased by 600,000. Erçetin later rerecorded the Turkish folk song " A Ballad for Chanakkale" in honor of the ''18 March Martyrs Memorial Day and the 101st Anniversary of the Çanakkale Victory''. It was released by

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; , TSK) are the armed forces, military forces of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey. The TAF consist of the Turkish Army, Land Forces, the Turkish Navy, Naval Forces and the Turkish Air Force, Air Forces. The Chief of ...

' official YouTube channel on 25 April 2015. After releasing her eighth studio album '' Ah Bu Şarkıların Gözü Kör Olsun'' in November 2015, which included covers of Turkish classical songs, Erçetin continued her career with the singles "Kim Korkar" and "Değişiyoruz", both of which were released in 2018. In the same year, she collaborated with Kardeş Türküler and was featured on their song "Bekle". In 2019, Erçetin released a new version of the song "Annem" from her album ''Elbette'', which was used on the soundtrack of the movie ''Annem'' (2019), directed by Mustafa Kotan. The music video for the new version was also directed by Kotan and published in September 2019. To mark the 25th year of her career since the release of her first album, Erçetin released her new single "İyi ki" on 31 January 2020. In 2022, Erçetin's song "Gamsız Hayat" was featured in the critically acclaimed British movie '' Aftersun''.

Discography

*'' Hazırım'' (1995) (English: ''I'm Ready'') *''

Çapkın ''Çapkın'' (''Womanizer'') is Candan Erçetin's second studio album. Most of the lyrics written by Mete Özgencil. The album sold 74,000 copies in Turkey. The song "Yalan" made a huge success all over Turkey.Elbette'' (1999) (English: ''Of Course'') *'' Neden'' (2002) (English: ''Why?'') *'' Melek'' (2004) (English: ''Angel'') *'' Kırık Kalpler Durağında'' (2009) (English: ''At the Stop of Broken Hearts'') *'' Milyonlarca Kuştuk...'' (2013) (English: ''We Were Millions of Birds...'') *'' Ah Bu Şarkıların Gözü Kör Olsun'' (2015) (English: ''Oh, These Songs Should Blackout'')

Filmography

TV programs

* ''Kol Düğmeleri'' (1994) * ''Randevu'' (1995) * ''Günlük Hayat'' (2001) * ''Candan Erçetin'le Beraber ve Solo Şarkılar'' (March 2007 – June 2008)

References

External links

* * Biyografi.info �
''Candan Erçetin''
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ercetin, Candan 1961 births Living people People from Kırklareli Galatasaray High School alumni Turkish people of Albanian descent Istanbul University alumni Turkish-language singers Turkish folk-pop singers Galatasaray S.K. board members Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Turkish people of Kosovan descent Turkish people of Macedonian descent Golden Butterfly Award winners French-language singers of Turkey