Music

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Danish superstar DJ Kölsch to livestream from TRNC’s historic Saint Hilarion Castle

One of the world’s leading DJs will be performing a unique set in an eleventh century castle in North Cyprus that was said to have inspired Walt Disney. Global dance music hit maker Kölsch will be live from Saint Hilarion Castle for a 90-minute concert on Monday, 31 May. Organised by music eve...

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Eurovision Song Contest 2021 crowns Italy as winners

This year’s Eurovision again proved to be a mixed bag of songs, talents and weird costumes but then which year since the 1980s hasn’t. Despite the year off due to the COVID pandemic or maybe because of it, the return of Eurovision with live performers and an actual audience was greeted with jub...

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Azerbaijan’s Samira Efendi competes in tonight’s Eurovision final

The Eurovision Song Contest is back after a year’s enforced absence due to the coronavirus pandemic. Twenty three countries will compete in Saturday’s televised final, among them Azerbaijan. Representing the Turkic republic is 30-year-old singer Samira Efendi, who impressed with her live performa...

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Rise – an empowering song from when Hakan was part of popular 90s band Natural Life

Rock musician Hakan Tuna has returned with his fourth release, Rise, from his 2021 project ‘12 songs 12 stories’. This track takes us back to an early part of Hakan’s life. By the age of 17 Hakan always knew that music would be his passion in life. He had been playing keyboards for around three t...

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Five things we discovered about Texan country rockers Ottoman Turks

When it comes to the world of Turks, T-VINE loves to cover the cool and the quirky, and so we were intrigued to learn about an American band called Ottoman Turks. Hailing from Dallas, Texas, here are five brilliant things we discovered about these booty-shaking, country rockers. Turkey of old in...

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Turkish dancer Serap Yilmaz to perform at special Sufi concert celebrating Rumi’s life

A special event featuring poetry, music and dance centred on the life of the 13th century Persian poet Mevlana Celaddiin-i Rumi will be streamed globally later this week. The line-up for this special event are renowned Persian musicians Seyed Ali Jaberi and the Hamdel Ensemble, and British Turkis...

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March special: from Anatolia to the Middle East, Arts Canteen’s eclectic line-up of music and spoken word

Led by Essex Arab funny girl Esther Manito as MC, and with performances from Palestinian hip hop star El Far3i (47Soul), Turkey’s Olcay Bayir, and Alia Al Zougbi, and with DJ Nooriyah spinning some tunes throughout, the evening promises to be an arts extravaganza of Middle Eastern-inspired music and...

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Esenkent Dansı – a song inspired by a London boy falling in love with Istanbul Apartment culture

Rock musician Hakan Tuna has returned with his third release, Esenkent Dansı, from his 2021 project ‘12 songs 12 stories’. Wholly instrumental, the track is inspired by his experience as a Londoner living in Istanbul. Hakan was born and raised in the British capital, growing up in a “typical Lond...

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Turkish national anthem “İstiklal Marşı” is 100 years old today

The Turkish national anthem celebrates its centenary today, after the İstiklal Marşı – or Independence March – was formally adopted as the country’s song on 12 March 1921. The words were written by Mehmet Âkif Ersoy, who bequeathed his work free of charge to the Turkish nation, and the music was...

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Mustafa Kuş and İmece’s “Veda” EP delivers their catchiest Anatolian psychedelic funk songs of yesteryear

Ironhand Records dig deep into their musical archives to present us with four outstanding tracks from Mustafa Kuş and his band İmece. These classic tracks are a fine, nostalgic blend of jazz, psychedelic funk and classic Anatolian rhythms. Turkish singer-songwriter Mustafa Kuş (top, far left)...

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