Turkish singer, songwriter and composer
Sertab Erener (born 4 December 1964) is a Turkish singer, songwriter and composer. With her coloratura soprano voice, she started working as a backing vocalist for Sezen Aksu, and with Aksu's help she released her first studio album in the 1990s. Because of her education in classical music, she initially had difficulties in performing pop music. Although she did experimental works from time to time, she eventually preferred to focus on making pop music instead of avant-garde works, in order to make her music heard by a larger audience. In some of her works, she combined Western music and Eastern music, and benefited from operas as well as classical Turkish music with ethnic elements. With her entrance to Europe's market in the early 2000s, many of her works were also sold in Turkey as well as European countries.
With Sezen Aksu's help, she made her debut in 1992 with the album "Sakin Ol!", and made herself known as a Turkish pop music artist in the 1990s by releasing the albums "Lâ'l" (1994), "Sertab Gibi" (1997) and "Sertab Erener" (1999). From these albums, the songs "Sakin Ol!", "Aldırma Deli Gönlüm", "Ateşle Barut", "Sevdam Ağlıyor", "Aslolan Aşktır", "Yanarım", "Zor Kadın" and "Vur Yüreğim" became number-one hits in Turkey. In the early 2000s, she continued her work by releasing the songs "Kumsalda" and "Kendime Yeni Bir Ben Lazım". She won the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the song "Everyway That I Can", marking Turkey's first victory in the competition. In 2004, she released the album "No Boundaries", followed by "Aşk Ölmez" in 2005. After five years, she released another Turkish studio album "Rengârenk" in 2010, and the hit songs "Bu Böyle", "Açık Adres" and "Koparılan Çiçekler" made the album a successful work, and marked her return to the music market. After "Rengârenk", she released the album "Ey Şuh-i Sertab" (2012), which was dedicated to her father. At the same year, she received the Best Female TSM Soloist award at the Golden Butterfly Awards. In 2013, her new album "Sade" was released. The songs "İyileşiyorum", "Öyle de Güzel" and "Söz" all became hits in Turkey. In 2016, with the release of "Kırık Kalpler Albümü", Erener stated that she was returning to her 90s style. The album received favorable reviews, and "Kime Diyorum" and "Olsun" both became hit songs in Turkey.
Erener has been praised for her music style and is one of the most successful artists who were discovered by Sezen Aksu. Due to her championship in Eurovision, she received the State Medal of Distinguished Service. In 2014, "Hürriyet" named her in its list of "91 Symbols of the 91st Anniversary of the Republic". Aside from her career as a singer, she also taught music at Müjdat Gezen Art Center for one year. Erener has been married three times, the second of which was to Levent Yüksel during 1990–96. She married Emre Kula in 2015. Throughout her career she has won seven Kral TV Video Music Awards as well as two Golden Butterfly Awards, and has received various other nominations.
Life and career.
1964–1991: Early life and career beginnings.
Sertab Erener was born on 4 December 1964 in Istanbul as the second child of Nizamettin and Yücel Erener. She spent her childhood in Eyüp, Istanbul. Her mother's family is from Yugoslavia but moved to Ayvalık, Balıkesir, due to the war in Eastern Europe. Her mother Yücel, had studied painting at Istanbul State Fine Arts Academy and graduated in 1957, but did not continue her career after marriage. Her paternal family was from Eastern Anatolia Region. Her paternal grandfather was from Muş, while her paternal grandmother was from Siirt. Her father Nizamettin, was born in Diyarbakır. He took music lessons form Şerif İçli and worked as a soloist on Istanbul Radio for one month. Despite his interest in music, he eventually preferred to become a lawyer. Sertab's elder brother is Serdar, who had a great influence on her during her childhood. Sertab Erener grew up with her father's passion for Turkish classical music. Due to his fondness of the song "Ey Şûh-i Sertab", her father decided to name her Sertab, meaning the "main light (radiance)". After finishing her primary school, she got the permission to enroll in Liceo Italiano di Istanbul, but her father sent her to Işık High School instead. During those years, she suffered from jaundice and at the age of 11 was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, for which she was hospitalized numerous times during her high school years. While she was at the second grade of high school, she became immensely interested in music and due to her fondness of opera music, she enrolled in Istanbul University State Conservatory to study opera. After taking singing lessons for a while, she continued her studies at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. She studied at Mimar Sinan University, Opera Major Arts and Concert Singing Department, but left the school before completing her studies. Although she was taking classical music lessons at the time, she decided to continue her career with opera, however, since she was not able to obtain what she expected from opera in her student years, she started to work as a stage soloist. At the age of 21, she got married and this marriage lasted for three years.
Sertab joined Sezen Aksu's birthday party in 1987 at Memduh Paşa Mansion as a soloist. She was chosen by the organizer of the party to perform at the event. Sezen Aksu noted Erener's drabness during their first meeting, but she liked her voice and offered her a job as a backing vocalist. Erener initially did not want to accept the offer and later said: "She [Sezen Aksu] asked me to become her backing vocalist. I didn't accept it. Because I was already a soloist. It sounded like taking a step backwards. I thought I shouldn't be a vocalist because of my position." Later, due to her friend Levent Yüksel's closeness with Aksu, Erener accepted the offer and became her backing vocalist. She later participated in the 1987 Kuşadası Golden Pigeon Music Competition under her married name, Sertab Altın, and performed the song "Akdeniz". In 1989, she joined Klips ve Onlar and performed the song "Hasret" in the competition to represent Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest 1989. They were placed third and lost the chance to represent the country in the contest. In 1990, she again joined the first-stage competitions, performed the song "Sen Benimlesin" and ranked 6th. In the same year, she married Levent Yüksel. She later described her second marriage in an interview: "Levent was one of my close friends; we were pals. He had girlfriends, I had boyfriends. We worked in the same orchestra. After divorce, I didn't even realize how it happened, I can't explain it, but it was a kind of affection or something like that. I had a lot of friends, but Levent was always special to me, and had a separate place. I think I was feeling something special about him. It happened spontaneously without even pushing."
1992–1998: "Sakin Ol!", "Lâ'l" and "Sertab Gibi".
Erener's name began to be heard in the early 1990s with Sezen Aksu's help. She prepared her first studio album with the help of Aksu, Uzay Heparı, Aysel Gürel and Garo Mafyan. Aksu spent a lot of money and time to help Erener in her album's preparations. Erener later talked about her experience: "I learned this country and land's music with Sezen's help. It was after meeting her that I became truly interested in the music that I was making here [in Turkey]. That is why Sezen had a lot of trouble when she was making that cassette for me, thinking about where in this [music industry] I belong to. Because people were saying 'Sertab sings well in English, but not in Turkish.' Those words had divided her mind in two parts." The album, titled "Sakin Ol!", was released in 1992. Sertab Erener made a huge debut with the album's lead single, also titled "Sakin Ol!". To assist Erener, both Aksu and Uzay Heparı appeared on the song's music video. "Milliyet" later wrote that thanks to "Sakin Ol!" Erener was brought suddenly to the top. With "Sakin Ol!", she made her position solid in the market, and brought a breath of fresh air to Turkish pop music. Within 25 days of its release, it sold 300,000 copies. The number later rose to 750,000 copies. Alongside "Sakin Ol!", separate music videos were released for the songs "Aldırma Deli Gönlüm", "Ateşle Barut", "Vurulduk", "Oyun Bitti", "O, Ye" and "Suçluyum". In December 1992, Erener performed at TRT 1 and Kanal 6's New Year programs.
On 13 March 1993, she gave a concert during the national selection in Turkey to choose the artist for the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. In June, "Hey Girl" magazine named her the Promising Singer of the Year. In July, she performed at Rumelihisarı. In 1993 and 1994, she went to the US and underwent three surgeries for ulcerative colitis from which she had been suffering since the age of 11. She later described her illness with these words: "There was a wound in my bowel which didn't heal for years. Hospitals, diets, resting, beds... I used to go to the bathroom 35 times a day. My intestines could not hold anything." All of her large intestine was taken out during the surgery and, as a result, she had to walk with a bag in her hand for a year. She began to question her own existence as she thought she was going to die from the disease, and in her head she started asking questions such as "Why am I here? Why me?". Thus, she started studying philosophy books and began meditation.
In between her surgeries Erener began preparations for her second studio album "Lâ'l", which was released on 14 October 1994. Most of the songs in the album were written by Sezen Aksu and it sold 640,000 copies. The album's lead single was prepared for the documentary "12 Mart: İhtilalin Pençesinde Demokrasi" and dedicated to Deniz Gezmiş. It was later included in Sony Music's "Sony Music 100 Years: Soundtrack for a Century" millennium set. Sertab Erener shot music videos for the songs "Sevdam Ağlıyor" and "Rüya" from this album. Sezen Aksu wrote the song "Rüya", inspired by Erener's illness and the sufferings that she endured following her surgeries. To promote "Lâ'l", Erener gave a concert at the Bostancı Show Center, during which she performed "Der Hölle Rache" from Mozart's "The Magic Flute". Later, she said that she wanted to turn opera into a popular genre among the people. In March 1995, she won the Best Female Artist award at the 1st Kral TV Video Music Awards. In April, she performed at the "Miss Turkey" competition. In September, she joined the campaign "We Go To the East with 1000 Artists", which was organized by Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and gave concerts in Eastern parts of Turkey.
In 1996, "Kim" magazine ranked Erener 6th on its list of the Frumpish Dressed Women. On 18 June 1996, Erener and her husband Levent Yüksel divorced. The couple later said that the reason behind their divorce was that "Our 13-year love turned into sibling or parental feelings. We decided to obtain a divorce because we thought that marriage wouldn't work out without love." In the same year, Erener voiced the character of Esmeralda in the Turkish version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". She also started working with Mezarkabul's guitarist Demir Demirkan. At the end of the year, preparations for her third studio album began. For the first time, she included songs that were written by herself in the album. She later talked about how she started songwriting: "I've tried to tell you what I live and feel as well as I can. Even if I didn't write it myself, I gave it to other songwriters to turn it into lyrics. I just acted as a commentator in my previous albums. This time, I work as a composer and songwriter." For her third studio album Erener signed a $100,000 contract with Sony Music and released "Sertab Gibi" in February 1997 under the labels of İmaj and Sony. Demir Demirkan also worked on the album. "Hürriyet"'s Lale Barçın İmer wrote that with "Sertab Gibi" Erener had taken an important step in