Hadise

Early life

Hadise Açıkgöz was born in the city of Mol, located near the town Antwerp, on 22 October 1985. Her name was chosen by one of her grandparents, having originally being intended for her older sister. Hadise's parents emigrated to Belgium from Sivas, Turkey. Her mother is Kumyk and her father is Lezgin. She grew up with her older sister, Hülya, a younger sister Derya and also a younger brother named Murat. Hadise was 11 years old when her parents divorced.

Hadise studied economics and modern languages. She is fluent in five languages: Turkish and Dutch (which are her native languages), French, German and English.

At the age of 18 and with the support of her family Hadise participated in the first season of the show Idool, the Flemish version of the Pop Idol series. She failed to qualify for the finals, however, her appearance was acknowledged by her soon-to-be manager Johan Hendrickx. Hendrickx contacted Hadise explaining how impressed he was with her performance on the show and offered her an album contract.

2004–2006: Sweat

After signing to 2 Brain records, Hadise recorded her debut single "Sweat", which was released in November 2004. Although a music video wasn't shot for the single, the song managed to peak at No. 19 on the Ultratop 50 singles chart. She later released the single "Stir Me Up" which gained popularity in both Belgium and especially Turkey, where the song became a huge hit in the summer of 2006. Hadise then released her single "Milk Chocolate Girl", the biggest hit from her debut album, which peaked at No. 13 on the Ultratop 50. A year after releasing her debut single, in November 2005, her first studio album Sweat was released with about half of the songs being written by Hadise herself. The album notably included the singles "Ain't No Love Lost" and "Bad Boy". "Bad Boy" peaked at No. 22 on the Ultratop.

2007–2008: Hadise

The self-titled album, was originally intended to be named On High Heels, referring to the fact that she has grown enormously in her professional career and knowledge. Hadise began to work on her second studio album in December 2007. The album was recorded in several countries, including Belgium, France, Turkey and Italy. The lead single, "A Good Kiss", was released in September 2007. This became her sixth consecutive single to chart on the Belgian "Ultratop 50". The song was also successful in Turkey, where it became her first single to chart on the "Turkish Billboard Chart". The song was later translated into Turkish by singer Sezen Aksu as "Deli Oğlan", and it become one of the most played songs in clubs in the summer of 2008. In Turkish, subsequently the single managed to peak at 3 on the Turkish Charts. Due to leaked images of Hadise being affectionate with a male model, the music video "Deli Oğlan" generated controversy amongst those who considered the images to be 'racy' or 'erotic'. Hadise later removed these scenes from the video.

Hadise released two more singles in Belgium "My Body", which was her best-selling single in Belgium (until the release of "Düm Tek Tek") and "My Man and the Devil on His Shoulder", her first single not to chart on the Ultratop 50 chart. Also the song "My Body" became popular in the Balkan countries and started airing at the Bulgarian Balkanika TV's playlist.

Hadise, which was released in June 2008, has become the most successful album of Hadise's career so far, as it was the first album to enter the Belgium Album chart, at 19, it was the first album of Hadise's to be released onto iTunes. She co-wrote ten of the album's songs with Yves Gaillard.

In June 2008, Hadise appeared on Serdar Ortaç's album Nefes on a track called "Düşman". In July 2008, Hadise revealed that she had met Kevin Federline during her trip to the USA and told the media that he had produced some music for her to use on a future album. A new video had surfaced of Hadise telling Belgian viewers that her future album would include urban beats and some of the producers and choreographers had worked with Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, and many more artists that are big in the game. In August 2008, she was nominated as the Best Turkish Act on MTV Europe Music Awards but lost to Emre Aydın.

2009–2010: Eurovision Song Contest, Fast Life and Kahraman

In 2007, Hadise stated that she would never take part in the Eurovision Song Contest after her best friend Kate Ryan, who represented Belgium, failed to qualify for the final round of the contest. A year later in 2008, Hadise expressed her desire to participate in the contest representing Turkey instead of Belgium. She was asked twice by the Belgian broadcasters to represent Belgium but each time she refused the offer. She told Belgian newspapers she wanted to represent Turkey instead of Belgium because she had already won many Belgian awards and also because the Eurovision Song Contest wasn't popular in Belgium anymore, whereas it was in Turkey. She also said that she preferred to represent Turkey as it was an internal selection rather than a public voting.

The rumors of Hadise's participation at Eurovision on behalf of Turkey first surfaced in 2007. On 24 October 2008, İbrahim Şahin, the general manager of Turkish broadcaster TRT, announced that Hadise had won an official poll beating out the likes of Şebnem Ferah to represent Turkey as the 2009 participant at the 54th Eurovision Song Contest.

It was revealed that Hadise had complete control over the production of the song and was in charge of deciding the lyricist, composer, producer and the language of the song. It was later revealed by the Turkish newspaper Sabah, that Hadise had presented three songs to TRT, who then chose the entry internally. On 31 December 2008, Hadise performed the song "Düm Tek Tek" for the first time on TRT. The song, which was the final choice for the competition, was written by Stefan Fernande and produced by Sinan Akçıl. The official music video for "Düm Tek Tek" was leaked online and was labelled as being too erotic. This was thought to be the reason why TRT didn't release the video; however Hadise's manager, Süheyl Atay, denied these claims. For promoting the song she traveled to countries such as Greece, Malta, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria. Meanwhile she was dealing with some health issues. On 16 May 2009, Hadise performed "Düm Tek Tek" in the Russian capital, Moscow, and received points from Azerbaijan, Belgium, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and Macedonia. With 177 points in total, Turkey earned the fourth place behind Norway, Iceland and Azerbaijan.

Hadise began working on her third studio album, titled Fast Life, which she revealed on her official MySpace page, during her preparation for the Eurovision Song Contest. The album was released on 15 May 2009, a day prior to the Eurovision final. This was the first album from her to contain all English tracks. It featured her Eurovision entry "Düm Tek Tek" along with the two other songs she penned to TRT to enter the Eurovision Song Contest with. These were "Double Life" and "Supernatural Love". "Düm Tek Tek" became Hadise's first number one single in Belgium. The album became number 1 on Indonesia Music Lists and ranked at number 16 on Belgium Music Lists. She then released the single "Fast Life", which she stated was based on her lifestyle during her Eurovision experience. The single was released on 15 June 2009 along with a music video, and won an award as the Best Turkish Song at Balkan Music Awards.

Just over a month after the release of Fast Life, Hadise officially released her first Turkish-language album, called Kahraman, on 19 June 2009. She collaborated with producers Sinan Akçıl, the producer of her Eurovision entry song "Düm Tek Tek", who also produced most of the album. Volga Tamöz and Erdem Kınay also helped working on some tracks. Hadise described the album as a personal piece. Like her album Fast Life, this album also features Hadise's Eurovision entry "Düm Tek Tek", along with the other two prossible songs, "Double Life" and "Supernatural Love", which were presented TRT. The tracks "Sirada" and "Kahraman" are the Turkish translation of Hadise's songs, from her album Fast Life, "On Top" and "Hero" respectively. "Evlenmeliyiz" (Turkish for "We Should Get Married") was released as the lead single and was released in July 2009, and reached the top 40 in Turkey. It was the second Turkish single from Hadise to have a music video. It was directed by Emir Khalilzadeh. A music video for the single "Kahraman" was also directed by Şenol Korkmaz and released as the second music video of the album. The album also contains her single "Düm Tek Tek" along with the other two songs Hadise presented TRT to enter the Eurovision Song Contest with, these were "Double Life" and "Supernatural Love". According to the statistical results announced at the end of 2009, Hadise was the most popular celebrity of the year.

2011–2013: Aşk Kaç Beden Giyer?

After her successful tour Hadise began to working on her second Turkish Album Aşk Kaç Beden Giyer? with the first single "Superman". The album was released on 11 April 2011. The album quickly became a huge success in Turkey, with three singles released. The lead single "Superman" quickly began gaining airplay in Turkey, The two following singles "Aşk Kaç Beden Giyer?" and "Mesajımı Almıştır O" were also huge commercial successes. One of the main reasons for Hadise's massive success in 2011–2012 was her role as judge on the Turkish TV show titled O Ses Türkiye (Turkish version of The Voice).

On 11 June 2012, Hadise released a single titled Biz Burdayız, which served as the lead single for her upcoming studio album. Besides the official version, a remix version of Biz Burdayız was also released, featuring English vocals by rapper Kaan.

2014–present: Tavsiye and Şampiyon

In January 2014, it was reported that Hadise would release both a 6th and 7th studio album. It was reported that she would release a Turkish album in April 2014 and this would be followed up by an English album to be released in the second half of 2014. She also stated that her older sibling, Hülya Açıkgöz, would be directing her upcoming and subsequent music videos. Hadise revealed that Tavsiye (English: Advice) would be the title of her Turkish album. When questioned about the title of the album Hadise said that she had a song with the same title and she felt that the collection of songs on the album contained advice for women, hence she chose this title.

The debut single from the album was confirmed to be "Nerdesin Aşkım". The music and lyrics were provided by Alper Narman and Onur Özdemir, the arrangement was done by İskender Paydaş, and Hülya Açıkgöz directed the music video. As of March 2017, the music video has accumulated over 64 million views on YouTube. The second single from Tavsiye was "Prenses". This music video was also directed by Hülya Açıkgöz and as of March 2017 has been viewed over 169 million times on YouTube.

Television career

In 2006, Hadise presented Popstar Türkiye (Turkish version of Popstars). It was her first presenting role in Turkey. From 2008 to 2009, she got a job as a presenter for the first time in Belgium. She was the presenter of the second season of Belgian X Factor at VTM. Although it was her first television job in Belgium, Hadise garnered much praise. She handled a critical moment when Maurice Engelen, one of the judges, left the contest during a live television cast. Hadise was also praised by the candidats of X Factor for guiding them. From 2011 to present, Hadise has working as one of the judges on the singing competition show O Ses Türkiye (Turkish version of The Voice).

Musical influences

Hadise has said she admires artists such as Shakira, Brandy Norwood, Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Janet Jackson, Tina Turner, Toni Braxton, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, U2 and Prince. Hadise's songs have also clearly been influenced by Turkish music, making her songs rather unusual, as it fuses R&B and Turkish pop. Examples of songs by her combining a strong Turkish slant with an Urban feel include "Stir Me Up", "Bad Boy", "A Good Kiss" and "Don't Ask". Many people have compared Hadise to American R&B singer Beyoncé. Her fans affectionately call her the most famous Turkish star worldwide.

Products and endorsements

It was announced that Hadise signed a deal with 'Yedigun', a Turkish Soda company for a promotional deal, which includes her featuring in TV commercials, on Billboards and taking part in a summer tour.

Philanthropy

Hadise, along with many other artists, performed for a Cancer research concert in Belgium. Hadise was the opening act for the event and the concert ended up raising 1.6 million Euros.

In September 2009, Hadise donated her time in support of the "Schools without Bullying" campaign in Belgium. During a press conference held by the organization, Hadise explained how as a child she "was bullied for her cloths" and even "because of her origin". She explained that she wanted to be part of the project because she loved children and had been a graduate herself, she understood how there was no place for bullying.

Filmography

Hadise has rejected two offers to star in a film. One of the parts was the leading role in a Turkish movie. Not much is known about this film, apart from the fact that the film supposedly focused on two sisters, one of whom was to be played by Hadise. In July 2008, Hadise was again offered a role in a Turkish comedy film.