Aynur is the stage name of Aynur Doğan, a Kurdish folk singer born in 1975 in Çemişgezek, Türkiye, in the province of Dersim. She studies singing at the ASM Music School in Istanbul, working with Begüm Erdem and Aşkın Metiner.

Career

Her first album, Seyir, is released in 2002. She performs both in Kurdish and Turkish, at home and abroad, and appears on concerts and recordings with artists and groups including Metin-Kemal Kahraman, Mikail Aslan, Grup Yorum, Orient Expressions, Lütfü Gültekin and Anjelika Akbar. She also provides vocals for television and cinema.

Keça Kurdan

In 2004, Kalan Music releases Keça Kurdan (“Kurdish Girl”). The album is the result of nearly a year’s work and includes Kurdish and Turkish folk songs as well as new compositions. Its arrangements involve Aykut Gürel, Serdar Ateşer, Kemal Sahir Gürel and Burhan Bayar, and it is accompanied by a large group of musicians. The record is noted for its original arrangements and for Aynur’s wide vocal range, with both folk singing and improvisation central to her style.

Reception and performances

Keça Kurdan attracts significant attention in Turkish and international press and reaches a wide audience among Kurdish music listeners. It is featured on the cover of fRoots in November 2004, and she appears on the cover of a supplement to The Times in March 2005. She gains wider notice through the Kurdish song she sings in Yavuz Turgul’s film Gönül Yarası, becoming the first person to sing a Kurdish song live in a film shot in Turkey. She also appears in Fatih Akın’s documentary Istanbul Hatırası / Crossing the Bridge.

International appearances and legal dispute

In May 2005, she performs in several cities in Holland with the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble. In July 2005, she gives three concerts at the “Festival of Turkey” in Spain, alongside artists including Sezen Aksu, Erkan Oğur, Kardeş Türküler, Mercan Dede and Burhan Öçal. Around the same period, the Sixth Criminal Court of Diyarbakır orders Keça Kurdan removed from sale on the grounds that its title track encourages separatism and women to go to the mountains; that decision is later annulled in September 2005.