Esin Afsar

Personal life

She was born in Bari, Italy to Nuzhet Hasim Sinanoglu, a writer and consular official of Turkey and his wife Ruveyde, a journalist and writer. Esin was the youngest of five siblings. Her brother, Oktay Sinanoglu, became a notable professor of chemistry. Other brothers became professor of Latin, professor of Ancient Greek and Press Chief at European Council in Strasbourg.

She attended TED Ankara Koleji, and then studied piano at the Ankara State Conservatory. After graduation, she entered Turkish State Opera and Ballet as a pianist. But then her focus shifted to the stage. She married Kerim Afsar, another stage artist. After 12 years of stage she returned to music and began singing in French and Italian. But after collaborating with Ruhi Su, she included Turkish folk music (turku) to her repertoire. After she got a divorce from Kerim Afsar, she was married to Sener Aral in 1975. After the mid 1980s, she was mainly active in foreign tours. She also played parts in drama. In 1999, she was hospitalized and her recovery was slow.

Although she briefly returned to concerts and album recordings, Afsar died on 14 November 2011 in a hospital in Istanbul, where she was taken due to leukemia about three weeks earlier. She was laid to rest at the Karacaahmet Cemetery. She was survived by her husband Sener Aral, son Dogan Can and daughter Pinar.

Career

Although her repertoire included a wide collection of various melodies of different tastes, her fame mainly stems from Turkish folklore. In 1969 two of her arranged folklore melodies became hits. These were Bana seni gerek (lyrics by Yunus Emre (1240-1321) and composition by Esin Afsar herself) and Yoh Yoh (by contemporary folklore poet Kul Ahmet). The melody on the reverse side of the Yoh Yoh 45rpm, was Bebek, a well known anonymous Turkmen folklore melody. After the release of Yoh Yoh she was nicknamed "Bayan Yoh Yoh" ("Mrs. Yoh Yoh").

She was sent to Hungary by Ihsan Sabri Caglayangil, the minister of Foreign Affairs as an official representative of Turkish culture. In 1970, she gave a series of concerts in Italy. In 1972, she visited Soviet Union (especially those republics which would soon be called Turkic Republics) and South Korea. In 1973, she was in Israel, Great Britain, Belgium and Tunis and in 1974 in Australia. She also participated in the Turkish under contest to nominate a Turkish participant for the Eurovision Song Contest 1975. In 1980, in a live TV program, she sang a melody with lyrics from Nazim Hikmet and her melodies were banned by the military junta. In 1985, she gave a concert in Paris. In 1988, she appeared in concerts at Lausanne, Switzerland, and the next year, in 1989 at Mulhouse, France.

Esin Afsar and Arabesque

Esin Afsar was strictly against a new style of music in Turkey emerged after the 1970s, named Arabesque, which was similar to Arabic music with Turkish lyrics. She protested Arabesque by composing a melody "Arabeske Inat" ("Counter to Arabesque").

Albums

45 rpm singles