Ayşe Şan

Who was Ayşe Şan?

Ayşe Şan was a Kurdish singer born in Diyarbakır, Turkey. She is considered as one of the most influential voices in contemporary Kurdish music. Her father was a traditional Kurdish singer or dengbêj. Aysha began singing at local events in 1958. After an unsuccessful marriage, she moved to Gaziantep, where she began recording Turkish songs for the local radio station. She moved to Istanbul in 1960 and recorded her first album in Kurdish. In 1979, she paid a visit to Iraqi Kurdistan where she met with many Kurdish musicians and singers such as Mihemed Arif Cizîrî and Tahsin Taha. From 1980s onwards, she settled in Izmir and worked in a local post office until her death in 1996 due to cancer.