Selda Bağcan

Havva Selda Bağcan (; born December 14, 1948) is a Turkish folk singer-songwriter, guitarist, and music producer.

Early life Selda Bağcan was born in 1948 in the western Turkish town of Muğla. Her father was a veterinarian of Macedonian Turk origin from the town of Bitola and her mother was a teacher of Crimean Tatar origin. She had two older brothers named Savaş and Sezer, and a younger brother named Serter, born when Selda was two years old. The family relocated to Van shortly after Serter was born, where Selda spent most of her childhood. Her father, Selim, was a music enthusiast who played the saxophone and the flute, and he encouraged all his children to start playing instruments from a very young age. Selda herself started to play the mandolin when she was five. Selda continued to play the mandolin, and picked up the guitar as well, during her middle school and high school years. At first she sang English, Italian and Spanish songs she picked up on the radio, but during her years as a student at Ankara University's engineering physics department, she started to develop an interest in traditional Turkish folk music, inspired by early Anatolian rock singers like Cem Karaca, Barış Manço and Fikret Kızılok, as well as the folk singer Saniye Can. Her brothers owned a popular music club named Beethoven in central Ankara, where she met some of these singers in person and where she was a regular performer herself throughout her years as a university student. and was imprisoned three times between 1981 and 1984. In late 2000, she was badly injured in a car accident on her way to a concert in Antakya, suffering several broken bones as well as contusions and cuts all over her body. She was able to make full recovery after a lengthy period of treatment. She expressed solidarity with the Gezi Park protests of 2013, even though she was not able to physically participate in the protests due to a concert in Belgium. In November 2014, Selda headlined Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands, together with bands that admitted to be influenced by her music, including St. Vincent, Tune-Yards and Suuns and Jerusalem In My Heart. Florence Welch has listed her as an influence for her music.

Bağcan currently lives in Istanbul and runs the music production company Majör Müzik Yapım. Her music has been sampled by several musicians outside of Turkey, including the band 2manydjs and hip-hop artists Mos Def, Oh No, and Dr. Dre.

Discography Studio albums Türkülerimiz 1 (1974) Türkülerimiz 2 (1975) Türkülerimiz 3 (1976) Türkülerimiz 4 (1977) Türkülerimiz 5 (1978) Türkülerimiz 6 (1979) Türkülerimiz 7 (1980) Türkülerimiz 8 (1982) Türkülerimiz 9 (1983) Türkülerimiz 10 (1985) Dost Merhaba (1986) Yürüyorum Dikenlerin Üstünde (1987) Özgürlük ve Demokrasiyi Çizmek (1988) Felek Beni Adım Adım Kovaladı (1989) Anadolu Konserleri: Müzikteki 20 Yılım (1 and 2) (1990) Ziller ve İpler - Akdeniz Şarkıları 1 (1992) Uğur'lar Olsun (1993) Koçero (with Ahmet Kaya) (1994) Çifte Çiftetelli - Akdeniz Şarkıları 2 (1997) Ben Geldim (2002) Deniz'lerin Dalgasıyım (2004) Güvercinleri de Vururlar (2009) Halkım (2011) 40 Yılın 40 Şarkısı (2014) Selda Bağcan Remix (2017) 40 Yılın 40 Şarkısı, Vol. 2 (2020)

Singles "Katip Arzuhalim Yaz Yare Böyle - Mapusanede Mermerden Direk" (1971) "Tatlı Dillim Güler Yüzlüm - Mapusanelere Güneş Doğmuyor" (1971) "Çemberimde Gül Oya - Toprak Olunca" (1971) "Adaletin Bu Mu Dünya - Dane Dane Benleri" (1971) "Seher Vakti - Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım" (1971) "Yalan Dünya - Kalenin Dibinde" (1972) "Eyvah Gönül Sana Eyvah - Zalim Sevgililer Bu Sözüm Size" (1972) "Bölemedim Felek İle Kozumu - Bülbül" (1973) "Gesi Bağları - Altın Kafes" (1973) "Nem Kaldı - Rabbim Neydim Ne Oldum" (1974) "Aşkın Bir Ateş - O Günler" (1974) "Anayasso - Bad-ı Sabah" (1974) "Dostum Dostum - Yuh Yuh" (1975) "Kaldı Kaldı Dünya - İzin İze Benzemiyor" (1975) "Görüş Günü - Şaka Maka" (1976) "Almanya Acı Vatan - Kıymayın Efendiler" (1976) "Aldırma Gönül Aldırma - Suç Bizim" (1976)