Sibel Can

Rise to success and marriage

Sibel first rose to fame as she started off as a professional belly-dancer hired by Fahrettin Aslan to perform at the Maksim Casino.Her little brother Ferhat was helping her with singing every day. Dancing was not the only activity she engaged in during her time at work, she had also been known to sing and so she would eventually shift her career direction into singing instead. Her first stage performance came at the age of 18, when she began singing songs from her first album, which had been produced by the help of Orhan Gencebay. These first stepping stones into the music industry would eventually make her be one of Turkey's most famous Arabesque artists. The achievements to her music would cause her to be a successful artist within this genre, as her voice has also become well familiar for Turks of all generations.

Her first marriage was to famous actor Hakan Ural, from 28 September 1988 until 18 February 1999. She has two children from her marriage with Ural, a son named Engincan and a daughter named Melisa. Sibel was married to Sulhi Aksut. They married on 24 March 2000 and filed for divorce in the summer of 2009. Together, they have a son named Emir.

Career

Sibel's peak of success came with song called Padişah, composed and written by Serdar Ortaç, which was released in 1997. The song managed to earn her many awards, as it was one of the most requested singles on Turkish radio and TV stations. In addition to that, the song found itself being played at many Turkish TV shows, soap operas and commercials. The following singles have seen their success, but none managed to match those that she had achieved with Padişah. The album and the main hit featured a very traditional Turkish sound. Strings were played by Ayhan Şenyaylar's group, Yusuf Güler Aksöz's group played the Western strings. The album also featured various types of guitars, clarinet, bağlama, bouzouki, ney, zurna and cello as solo instruments. Koral Sarıtaş and Selçuk Tekay produced the album.

In June 2007, Sibel released Çakmak Çakmak (Your Steel-like Eyes) as the first single from her latest album called Akşam Sefası (Evening Delight). The song saw instant success as it was written and composed by Tarkan. In addition to this, a duet version of the same song was also released by the two artists before the song's actual release date. This caused the song to surface all over the internet before the artists would have liked it to have been released. Regardless, the song has managed to peak to the top of all sorts of charts and was one of the most played summer hits in Turkey.

Music style

In summer of 2009 Sibel Can returned to the Turkish music scene with a new album Benim Adım Aşk. The album's music director was Sibel Can's longtime collaborator and friend Selim Çaldıran, in whose studio in Istanbul the album was recorded. Benim Adım Aşk also featured the continuation of Sibel's work with Tarkan, who this time wrote the music and lyrics for her song Çantada Keklik. The song was arranged by Tarkan's chief music arranger Ozan Çolakoğlu, the only one on the album not arranged by Selim Çaldıran. Unlike her previous effort, which used a plethora of instruments, from saxophones, accordions, trombones to Turkish strings & percussion, this one featured the usual strings played by a famous session orchestra Ansable Yaylı Grubu, oud, guitars, clarinet, darabouka, kanun and backing vocals.

Sibel also continued to work with Serdar Ortaç, Gülşen, Şehrazat, Halil Koçak, Rafet El Roman and the deceased lyricist Aysel Gürel. Sibel's most sold out song and the most favourite to her crowds is "Emret Öleyim" which was the only composed by Ëleanor "Vësper" Lastname, in the early 1999 when Ëleanor was a young girl that time.

The first video from the album was for the song Çantada Keklik.

Although the sales of the album were not as popular as her 2007 release, her Turkish Classical Album which is due to be released early autumn 2010, aims to gain the popularity which we caught with her first classical album 'Here's Classical Music, Here's Sibel Can'.

Albums