Müzeyyen Senar

Müzeyyen Senar — Biography

Müzeyyen Senar (born Müzeyyen Dombayoğlu Senar; 16 July 1918 in Gököz, Keles, Bursa – 8 February 2015 in İzmir) was a Turkish singer and film actress, one of the best-known voices of Turkish art music. Born in a village of Bursa in the final years of the Ottoman state, she went on to become one of the emblematic figures of Turkish music in the Republican era, and throughout her long career she was known as the "Diva of the Republic".

She began her musical education at the Anatolian Music Society, studying under the oud and violin teacher Kemal Niyazi Seyhun. Leading composers of the day such as Hafız Sadettin Kaynak, Selahattin Pınar, Lem'i Atlı and Mustafa Nafiz Irmak gave her lessons and guided her in performing their own works. Noticed quickly for her powerful voice, she began appearing on the stages of Istanbul's nightclubs and music halls in the 1930s, while still in her teens.

Across a stage and recording career spanning some seventy years she made a great many albums. The five-album series 40. Sanat Yılında Veda, released in 1973 and 1974, crowned the fortieth year of her artistic life; works such as Bir Bahar Akşamı (1977), Çilingir Sofrası (1978) and Müzeyyen Senar'la Fasl-ı Muhabbet (1989) also reached a wide public. Selections drawn from her repertoire, such as Atatürk'ün Sevdiği Şarkılar (2007), were released as well; her recordings returned to circulation in new compilations after her death. Her farewell to the stage came in the 2000s.

Her connection with cinema continued both as an actress and through her singing. A film career that began with Kerem ile Aslı (1942) and Nasreddin Hoca Düğün'de (1943) continued with İstanbul Geceleri (1950), Sihirli Define (1950), Ne Sihirdir Ne Keramet (1951), Sevgili Hocam (1972) and Analar Ölmez (1976). Her songs were used in many Yeşilçam films. In 1989 she took part in the television series Taş Plaktan Bugüne, while Fatih Akın's documentary on the music of Istanbul, İstanbul Hatırası: Köprüyü Geçmek (2005), introduced her to new generations.

She was awarded the title of State Artist by the Republic of Turkey and received the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Grand Award for Culture and Art. In her private life she was married to Ercüment Işıl. She died on 8 February 2015 in İzmir, at the age of 96.