It has been 24 years since Ahmet Kaya lost his life. Ahmet Kaya is one of the most popular names in original music who left his mark on an era with his songs. Kaya was born in Malatya in 1957, the fifth child of a Kurdish father from Semsûr (Adıyaman) and a mother from Malatya. His father was the biggest influence on his start in music. Kaya became interested in music when his father gave him a baglama as a gift when he was only 6 years old. While going to school, he also worked at a record and cassette shop whenever he had time. However, this situation did not last long. Kaya and his family migrated to Istanbul in 1972 due to financial difficulties. Kaya had to drop out of school due to this situation.

 

MEETING GÜLTEN HAYALOĞLU

 

Kaya worked as an apprentice in various workplaces here, although he had trouble adapting for a long time. After returning from military service, he married a woman named Emine. However, this marriage ended due to economic difficulties. “I tried to go to prison by acting against the system,” Kaya said about the economic difficulties he experienced years later. 

 

During this period, Kaya made progress in his artistic life and released the album “Ağlama bebeğim” in 1985 as a result of long efforts. Kaya released his second album, “Acılara tutunmak”, at Değişim Studio. Kaya met Gülten Hayaloğlu through Sezer Bağcan, the owner of Değişim Studio, whom he met in prison. Kaya married Hayaloğlu after the release of the second album. 

 

ŞAFAK TÜRKÜSÜ

 

After their marriage, Hayaloğlu gave Kaya the poem Şafak Türküsü by poet Nevzat Çelik, who was on trial in the Revolutionary Left (Dev-Sol) case in prison with a death sentence. Kaya composed the song, which was released in 1986 and reached a huge audience. Kaya also released the album “An Gelir” in the same year.  

 

MEETING YUSUF HAYALOĞLU

 

Kaya then met Yusuf Hayaloğlu, the brother of his wife, who had a great influence on his life, and his poetry. After this acquaintance, the album “Yorgun Demokrat” was released in 1987, most of the lyrics of which were written by Yusuf Hayaloğlu. In 1998, the album “Başkaldırdırıyorum”, for which Hayaloğlu was the lyricist of two songs, was released, and in 1989 the album “İyimser bir gül”, again with lyrics mostly by Hayaloğlu, was released. The album “Sevgi duvararı”, an album consisting of various poems by many poets, was also released in 1990.

 

ALBUM CONFISCATED

 

Kaya's album “Şarkılarım dağlara”, released on May 12, 1994, became one of the best-selling albums of the 90s with record sales. The album was confiscated due to the lyrics “Your brother will return from the mountains one day, you'll hug my baby” in the song “Özgür çağrı”. Kaya was also banned from giving concerts.

 

KAYA'S MUSIC STYLE

 

In his early albums, Kaya generally emphasized the baglama. His music style was characterized as “original” music because it did not fall into the pop, arabesque and similar categories. However, Kaya's music style was characterized as revolutionary arabesque and protest music by the public at the time. 

 

Kaya, who usually deals with popular issues in his songs, has not refrained from composing the poems of many well-known poets such as Atilla İlhan, Can Yücel, Nevzat Çelik, Hasan Hüseyin Korkmazgil, Enver Gökçe and Ahmed Arif.

 

ATTACK FOR KURDISH SONG

 

Kaya made a total of 22 albums throughout his career and only one of the songs on these albums was Kurdish. He announced that he was going to make a Kurdish song called “Karwan” on February 11, 1999 when he received the best artist award at the Magazine Journalists Association award ceremony. Kaya was lynched at the award ceremony for saying “I will sing a Kurdish song in the album I am currently preparing and will release in the coming days and I will shoot a music video for this song” and was forced to leave for Paris. 

 

Ahmet Kaya died of a heart attack in Paris on November, 2000 while recording his album "Hoşçakal Gözüm". Kaya received hundreds of awards after his death. Kaya is still considered one of the bes artist of all time with millions of listeners.