Ebru

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Ebru Günde? (born 12 October 1974 in ?stanbul) is a Turkish pop folk singer.

Early life

Ebru Günde? went to primary school in Ankara. Moving back to ?stanbul with her family afterwards, she had to discontinue her education due to financial hardship.

The quality of her voice was discovered at an early age when one of her relatives took her to Ne?e Demirkat, a partner of Raks Ne?e Müzik a record label in Turkey. Ne?e Demirkat was impressed with her voice and introduced her to music producers Koral Sar?ta? and Sel?uk Tekay. [1]

Career

Ebru Günde? sings the kind of desperately tragic arabesk love songs that are the core of Turkish popular music. Besides Turkey, she is especially popular in Iran where she was voted among one of the favourite singers.

Her debut album, Tanr? Misafiri, was released in 1992. It proved to be a massive success and sold 1,250,000 copies. At this stage she was a very sweet and innocent-looking girl, slim, dressed in white and with an attractive way of raising one eyebrow. She was on billboards all over Istanbul. Coming as she did from one of Istanbul's less affluent districts, with a rough manner and speaking voice in contrast to her beautiful singing voice, she garnered lots of public support. Her subsequent albums have been hugely successful and are listed below.

Stardom has taken its toll on her health. She suffered from a brain haemorrhage in December 1999 while recording the album D?n Ne Olur, which resulted in two very serious operations. She spent a lot of time away from the public eye, recuperating, and fortunately she returned to full health. D?n Ne Olur was one of the best selling albums ever in Turkey. In November 2001 she released the album Ahd?m Olsun. This album embodied the pain of the experience she endured from December 1999 to November 2001. It also offered a clear story line for the events that took place in her life that year.

Her television career

Ebru Günde? has made hundreds of television appearances in Turkey as a singer and recently as an actress in a situation comedy "?mkans?z A?k" (Impossible Love)[3]. She was also the host of her Mega Show, one of the most watched television shows in Turkey. Every week Ebru was joined by a variety of other Turkish singers, most notably her long time friends Serdar Orta? and ?brahim Tatl?ses. The show featured Ebru singing her own songs, singing classic songs and singing duets with other singers.[4] Now she is appearing in the hugely popular singing contest Popstar Alaturka as a guest judge along with Turkey's most popular singer the diva Bülent Ersoy and Orhan Gencebay and Armagan ?aglayan.