Ajda Pekkan

Ajda Pekkan is a Turkish pop singer, born Ayşe Ajda Pekkan on 12 February 1946 in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. She is on Muzika-Balkan under Bosnia because of her family roots: the Turkish Wikipedia says plainly that her family is of Bosniak origin ("Ailesi Boşnak kökenlidir"), and the English Wikipedia that she is of Bosniak descent. Neither names the place the family came from. She lives in Istanbul, where the Turkish Wikipedia gives her home as Bahçeköy in Sarıyer.

Her father was a Turkish Navy commander, and the family moved to Gölcük for his work. Her sister Semiramis Pekkan is also a singer. Ajda began singing in the early 1960s with the group Los Çatikos in a nightclub, and in 1963 she won the cinema artist competition of the magazine Ses. Over about six years she appeared in nearly 50 black-and-white films, among them Şıpsevdi (1963), Hızır Dede (1964) and Şaka ile Karışık (1965), before she left acting to concentrate on music.

Her first record, Her Yerde Kar Var, came out in 1965. In the 1970s she became one of the biggest names in Turkish pop with "Kimler Geldi Kimler Geçti" (1973), the compilation Ajda (1975) and the album Süperstar (1977), and the Turkish media know her by the title "Superstar". She also recorded in French, with the album Pour Lui (1978). In 1980 she represented Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest with "Pet'r Oil" and finished 15th.

The 1980s brought Sen Mutlu Ol (1981) and Süperstar '83 (1983), which was named light music LP of the year, and in 1984 she was light music artist of the year at the Golden Butterfly Awards. Later albums include Ajda 1990, Ajda '93, Cool Kadın (2006), Aynen Öyle (2008), Farkın Bu (2011) and Ajda (2021). Her best-known songs also include "Palavra Palavra", "Uykusuz Her Gece", "Yaz Yaz Yaz", "Sarıl Bana" and "Yakar Geçerim".

She has sold more than 15 million records, which makes her one of Turkey's best-selling artists of all time. She holds the Turkish title of State Artist, and in 2013 France made her an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. She is still active: she released "Canın Sağ Olsun" in 2019, acted in the series Kızılcık Şerbeti in 2023 and recorded "Hileli" with the girl group Manifest in 2026. The playlist gathers her songs from her official Topic channel.