Rojda Aykoç

Rojda Aykoç — Biography

Born Kadriye Şenses in 1978 in the village of Tütün in the Kurtalan district of Siirt, she moved to Istanbul with her brother Çiya in 1991 after finishing primary school and began singing in local bands; though she had long used the stage name Rojda informally, she formally adopted it in 2004. She began her career with Koma Gulên Xerzan in 1991, worked within the Mesopotamia Culture Center from 1993, and sang with the eleven-woman group Koma Asmîn in 1997.

She recorded 'Rûkena Min' in 2005 and released her first solo album, 'Sebra Min', in 2006; drawing on influences such as Karapetê Xaço, Meyremxan, Ayşe Şan and Merzîye Rezazî, she has performed in the UK, Germany, Italy and Austria.

In 2009 she was prosecuted for "spreading propaganda" over her performance of the song 'Heval Kamuran' in Diyarbakır; she was arrested in February 2010, briefly detained, and sentenced to one year and eight months in prison, and that same year she declined to attend a meeting on the government's "Kurdish opening" to which she had been invited. In 2013 she performed at Vienna's City Hall alongside Osman Baydemir and Leyla Zana, calling for a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish issue. She remains an active performer, having given concerts in recent years in cities such as Bursa, Bismil, Van and Çanakkale, and drew attention with her release 'Dilber'.