Dressed in a flowing blue gown, the Turkish diva held an audience of close to 6,000 music lovers spellbound for the duration of the two-and-a-half-hour concert.
Joined on stage by Grammy-nominated pianist and composer Fahir Atakoğlu alongside a talented ensemble of backing musicians including US-born percussionist Jarrod Cagwin and Dutch bassist Eric van der Westen, the glamorous 57-year-old, widely hailed as the “Turkish Madonna” kicked the evening off with a rendition of “Lal” (Ruby), drawing the concert to a close with her lively hit “Rakkas” (Dancer), the Anatolia news agency reported.
The audience -- packed to the rafters of the historic concert hall -- consisted mostly of nostalgic homesick Turks, many of whom had travelled considerable distances for the opportunity to see the international star perform live. This was Aksu’s second time performing at the prestigious venue with her previous concert at the concert hall, which is located in Kensington, in the fall of 2007, having marked her down in history as only the second Turkish artist after Zeki Müren to perform at the prestigious venue.
Commenting on Aksu’s previous visit to London, Robin Denselow of The Guardian wrote last month that the Turkish diva “provoked some of the wildest scenes I have ever seen at a foreign-language concert when she made her first appearance here nine years ago.”
Never an artist to shy away from the championing of causes she feels passionately about, Aksu delivered a poignant plea for peace in the wake of Tuesday night’s terror attacks in Turkey’s Hakkari province, which left 24 Turkish soldiers dead and 17 injured.
“I will always be on the side of peace; no aim or ambition of mankind can be more valuable than peace.”
Always having striven to break down barriers and encourage development and progressive thought, Aksu, who was the first woman in Turkey to record her own material, has continued to address and tackle personal and political issues, even daring to sing in Kurdish in 2002, at a time when it was officially banned.
An artist whose passionate vocals and evocative voice have touched many, regardless of their understanding of the Turkish lyrics of her songs, Aksu’s unique sound is reminiscent in style and substance to Turkish folk traditions. The release of Aksu’s latest album “Öptüm” in the UK last month made the star the first Turkish singer to release an album in the UK.
Michael Church of the British daily newspaper The Independent penned in an album review of the CD that the “Turkish chanteuse has a unique timbre, which gets more mysterious the deeper she goes.”
Church further commented that the album “both echoes the Turkish classical tradition and speaks to current social injustices.”
Dubbed by The Guardian as the “undisputed queen of contemporary Turkish music,” Aksu, who has composed over 500 songs and released 24 albums over the past four decades, was ranked amongst some of the world’s best singers alongside Iggy Pop and Billie Holliday in the acclaimed 50 Great Voices series run by the United States’ National Public Radio (NPR) last year.