Sibel Tüzün
Hayat Buysa Ben Yokun Bu Yolda

May 2006. As I did almost every year, I was watching the Eurovision Song Contest. That year, given Greece's victory the previous year, it was held in Athens. Some songs were nice, others decidedly bad, and others I liked a lot.

Among the various nations in the competition, I was waiting to hear the performances of the countries for which I have a natural sympathy: Poland, Israel, and Turkey. The Israeli performance was decidedly mediocre: a large black guy sang a very 'volemose bene' gospel. Nice choirs but an inconsistent song. The Polish representatives? I would avoid commenting on them. Pure trash. Then, towards the end of the show, came the moment for the Turkish representative.

Her name was Sibel Tüzün. I didn't know anything about her: not even what she looked like. I found myself watching this almost six-foot blonde, covered (so to speak) in a skimpy dress full of glitter and sequins, dominating the stage. «So much for the Muslim woman all about home, mosque, and veil!» I thought amused, imagining the face that the honorable Santanché with her anti-veil battles would make. I was also favorably impressed by Tüzün's choice to sing in her (in my opinion, beautiful) language, despite a competition where almost all artists now bow to the dominance of English. The track is a kind of hybrid between seventies disco dance and sinuous Turkish and Middle Eastern rhythms. It is titled «Süper Star», and I was pleasantly surprised that the instrumental base was composed of 'real' instruments. No sampling, no special effects: only drums, violins, guitars, etc. It didn’t make it to the 'big 10' (which would have guaranteed Turkey a spot in the finals the following year) by just a few points. Intrigued, I searched for material about the singer online. I found out that Sibel Tüzün is one of the leading representatives of Turkish rock-pop, who graduated from the Istanbul Conservatory and many other facts that made me hopeful about the quality of her work until I stumbled upon her album from 1998, titled «Hayat Buysa Ben Yokun Bu Yolda», or «If This Is Life, I’m Not On This Road». I listened to the album. It was partly a confirmation of what I 'suspected', partly a pleasant surprise.

The album presents well. It is a kind of rock-grunge full of grit. Tüzün's warm and sensual voice goes well with the aggressive bases. The track-list opens with "Hayat Buysa Ben Yokun Bu Yolda", with its decisive rhythms but melancholic singing in which Tüzün denounces various ugliness in the world and especially her country (tensions with Kurds and Armenians, poorly respected human rights, etc.). It's a vaguely grunge piece, with male choirs providing background to the singer's vocalizations. Rockers such as Cannetin Çocuklari, Gidiyorum, Oyun are also fiery. What stands out most in this album, at least for a Western listener, are the various tributes Tüzün offers to groups surely more known than her around the world. In addition to the citation of «Jump», by Van Hallen in «Sen», there's also a tribute to the kings of grunge par excellence. In «Degisim», in fact, Sibel pays homage to Nirvana and their «Smells Like Teen Spirit» in a sympathetic and apt way.

A well-made album, fun, well-sung with beautiful songs and certainly well-packaged. It really encourages one to hear Sibel Tüzün’s other works, as she proves to be an excellent performer and songwriter of songs that are anything but banal.