Sezen Aksu: Optum

Aksu, Sezen

WV 450019

Sezen Aksu, the queen of Turkish contemporary music, has sold more than 20m albums in her 30-year career. She provoked some of the wildest scenes I have ever seen at a foreign-language concert when she made her first appearance here nine years ago, and there will doubtless be a similar reaction when she returns in October.
She became a celebrity in the 70s as the first woman in Turkey to record and perform her own material, and she has continued to break taboos, tackling personal and political issues and daring to sing in Kurdish when it was officially banned. Now in her mid-50s, she is still an exceptional singer, as she proves on this, her first international release. She's backed by a guitar band, brass, strings and Turkish instruments for a set that consists largely of love songs, from the pained Vay to the emotional and explicit Sayim. Then there's a powerful lament about fate, and a driving political anthem in which she asks "Which side are you on?" to the backing of rock guitars and jazz-edged horns. Sadly, there are no full translations of her lyrics, but her passionate vocals are enough to justify her celebrity. • guardian.co.uk

CD

Inne

World Village

05-10-2011

3149026006621