1999

22.3

Zeki Muren (1931-1996) grew up in the provincial capital city of Bursa in western Turkey. From 1950 to 1953 he studied Decorative Arts in Istanbul at the Fine Arts Academy, while launching his musical career. Zeki’s first album was issued in 1951 when he was a regular singer on Istanbul Radio. Later he moved on to Turkish cinema starring in eighteen films and writing many of the musical scores. Zeki Muren was also a gifted poet, publishing Bildircin Yagmuru (The Quail Rain) in 1951. In 1955 he produced his first Gold Record, and for many subsequent years he reigned as "Artist of the Year." In his forty-five-year professional career he composed more than one hundred songs and made more than two hundred recordings. He was celebrated as the "Sun" of classical Turkish music, and affectionately called "Pasha" by all. He died on stage in the city of Izmir on 24 September 1996. Zeki Muren’s contribution to modernizing Turkey, his impact upon popular culture there, and his legacy to Turkey’s arts are the subjects of the discussion which follows. The participants—Sean Killeen, Terken Hacaloglu and Aykut Kansu—were all serving as international volunteer election observers in September 1998 when this talk took place in Sarajevo.

Sean Killeen, 57, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer teacher at Hacettepe Medical University in Ankara, 1964-66. Terken Hacaloglu, 26, is completing her M.S. thesis at Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Aykut Kansu, 42, is a professor of history at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, having earned his Ph.D. degree at MIT.

Sean:Until his recent death, Zeki Muren was a professional figure in Turkey for about forty years. For both your lifetimes Zeki was a prominent personality. Could you talk about him as a person in your life, and his role and place in Turkey?

Terken:The main thing for me about Zeki Muren is that my mother is a fan of him/her. I don’t know whether to say, him or her. Everyone in Turkey knows about this him/her aspect of Zeki, but they somehow ignore it because he had such a unique voice and style. Everyone ignored this and loved him.

S: Has your mother for her entire adult life listened to and loved Zeki’s music?

T:Yes, she has gone to his concerts, and sang along with him when his music was on the radio.

S:Did you ever join your mother at a Zeki concert?

T:No, I know of Zeki from my home life and from popular culture.

S:I went to a concert in Ankara thirty-five years ago. The audience was mostly women. The women who were more appreciative and enthusiastic about his singing tended to be older women, about fifty rather than twenty years.

T:This age factor may be related to his kind of music because he sang classical Turkish music which older audiences might value more.

S:What do you mean by classical Turkish music? What were the themes he sang of: nation, mother, family?

T:Only love. 90% of all classical Turkish songs are related to love. He or she loves him or her.

S:And have you, Aykut, listened to Zeki’s music?

Aykut:I have never really listened to him because my preference is not for court music as it’s called. It is a kind of folk music, which has historical significance, but it doesn’t appeal to me so I never listen to it, if I have a choice.

S: But if you were riding in a car and a song came on the radio would you recognize Zeki’s voice?

A:Of course, absolutely, I would. Nobody would deny the role Zeki played in terms of making this music even more popular and performing it so well. He furthered an expressive style. He was unique in his time, in giving concerts to huge crowds. He brought something new to the stage. Whereas other singers wore traditional classical costumes, Zeki had these fancy clothes.

T:For example, he introduced Roman gladiator costumes in his concerts.

A:His costumes were very funny at times but that appealed to the audiences somehow. And this was something new, which no one else had yet dared to do.

S:Is it possible to fully appreciate Zeki Muren if you can’t see but can only hear him?

A:I would assume it would be enough to hear his voice without seeing him. Zeki Muren sang much much better than other singers of his time. By the end of his career of course there were so many other singers that he was becoming overshadowed.

S:He had created a following of imitators?

A:Not exactly imitators but other innovators. In the ‘60s he was probably one of the very few singers who gave public concerts. In this pre-TV, radio era most singers were under contract. But Zeki was an independent singer; he gave concerts and made films. So he appealed to the public in a way no other singer had done before—like wearing kilts on stage.

S:Were Zeki’s movies just another vehicle for him to reach the people?

A:People went to see him sing and see him act, but he was no actor. He was a good singer and his films made him more popular; and then more people went to his concerts. Starting from the late ‘60s onward, his appearance in the films differed from his appearance in concert halls. In films he appeared as a regular guy.

S: Oh really, why?

A:His concert appearance was totally different, flashy, fancy clothes which nobody, man or woman, would wear anywhere else except on stage. Somewhat like the gaudy outfits of Elvis Presley, but more so, Zeki wanted the image of a flashy singer, and no one else could dare imitate him.

S: Were you, Terken, ever with your mother when Zeki appeared on TV? What was her reaction?

T: If we heard him on the radio, then we turned it up, because "Zeki is singing." If we saw him on television, it’s like modern folklore for me. I like his films because it’s popular, artistic, Turkish culture; you know the poor guy or poor girl with the rich guy and they love each other. I am also interested in Turkish music, and I play one of the classic folk instruments, the Kanun. So I can say that Zeki is nearly perfect, while he is singing. So my mother’s reaction is overreaction maybe; and also maybe because my father doesn’t like him. My father will say: "Look at him, he is one of those modern singers and he’s one of those kind of people." My mother will reply, "Shhh, don’t speak, don’t speak, Zeki is singing."

S:So maybe your mother is teasing your father a little bit; wives and husbands do that. Not all but many men are uncomfortable with the feminine, the soft, the delicate.

T:I don’t know the reaction of men to Zeki, but women my mother’s age like him very much. Once when I asked my mother why she liked Zeki so much she told me: "First because of his voice, and also because he respects his audience and never turns his back on them. When he sings each word can be understood clearly which is important in the performance of this type of music. Also Zeki was the first to wear glittering costumes on the stage; and when he performs he always hangs a nazar boncugu—a blue glass bauble (for protection against the evil eye) on his microphone."

S:Can you, Aykut, speak about popular reactions to Zeki’s effeminate mannerisms? I know you can’t speak for every man, but is this in any way connected with why you don’t care for his stage performance?

A:I don’t know, since I don’t particularly like this type of music, I haven’t a real basis for an opinion.

S:What kind of music do you like?

A:I listen mostly to classical music. And sometimes out of curiosity, to folk music from other nations. Zeki’s type of music doesn’t really make me listen to it. It’s just personal preference, not that’s it’s bad, and not that it’s tasteless. Perhaps it’s the empty content of the lyrics. Maybe I shouldn’t say banal, but there is no real story in them. For me a song works if it expresses something, suffering, for instance. Real suffering would be a good song for me. Fake sufferings are only love stories that don’t end in a happy way. It is not realistic; maybe if it were realistic then I might at least like the lyrics.

S:You probably would not describe yourself as a romantic?

A:No, not in this case. So having said this, I have no point in listening to this kind of music. But what I do find in a way somewhat admirable, and in a way also an escape from reality, is the way Zeki dressed. His costumes were a comment on the double standard in society and in his own life. It bothers me a lot, because it means that people are not fully honest. And his dishonesty also made me angry at times because of the way he dressed, and his self-ridicule. It would appear that he preferred to wear women’s clothes and be a drag queen; and this was his show. Zeki acted the part of a drag queen perfectly, but he also appeared as a regular guy. He never discussed this dual identity, and as I understand it he had this more or less split personality. On TV interviews and in his concerts he was extremely polite, extremely courteous, all the things that go with proper manners. In his private dealings with other people, he had a kind of alter-life. His public life was all very well organized, very asexual, very proper.

S:Do you think he was trying to protect his private life?

T:Perhaps, he was so polite publicly, so no one would dare to ask him bothersome questions.

A:But his was not a real politeness, is what I was trying to say. It was just stage politeness. In his private life he was the rudest of men. You never hear him on records being rude, or talking in a foul-mouthed manner. But privately he was a very difficult person.

S:Did he have any family or companions who were with him all his life? Where did he grow up and go to school?

T:He had his mother; he is from Bursa. That is why Bursa is the subject of those kinds of jokes. "Are you from Bursa," they say!

S:San Francisco or Key West is Bursa in America.

T:His mother was the most important person in his life. His father died when he was young, I believe. When he was fifty years old or so he became so huge, so fat that he weighed 130 kilos (285 pounds). He decided to live in isolation in Bodrum on the Mediterranean coast, and go nowhere else. If he appeared on TV, only his hands and face were shown because he was so enormous.

S:That happened to Elvis, too; he also ballooned.

T:In the last period of his life he had a driver and a housekeeper who did shopping and other chores. His home in Bodrum was called Pasha’s place because the people there called him Pasha. He even had a huge chair like a throne where he spent a lot of time. But he didn’t die at home in Bodrum. He died when he was on TV.

A:It was a very dramatic death.

S:Was this dramatic exit from life’s stage somehow planned?

T:One of our government ministries decided to thank him because of his life long services to Turkish culture, music and the arts. He was a son of ours, of Turkey, of the motherland. They decided to present him with his old microphone, which he used at the start of his career. It weighed four kilos (nine pounds) and Zeki had heart problems; when he lifted it, he dropped dead.

S:Four kilos killed Zeki?

T:They carried him backstage and he died there.

S:How old was he?

T:He was 65. At his funeral he was dressed beautifully, and everybody was there. His friends and all other singers paid their respects.

S:Seventy-five years ago in America, movie idol Rudolph Valentino was a heartthrob for the women. On the anniversary of his death women still go and put flowers on his grave. Women who were not even born when he died go to his grave and grieve. Do fans go to Zeki’s grave in Bodrum or Bursa to honor him? Is there a Zeki Muren fan club that take this "perpetual flame" as their responsibility; or is there a kind of governmental museum or shrine?

T & A:No!

A:It’s not a matter of forgetting his music, his records might continue to sell. But he himself will not be made a public hero. When he is dead, he’s dead.

S:What about the business people who want to keep him alive because they are making money, and because he is now dead his memory can be controlled and reshaped?

A:No one has yet created a business out of his life and death as was done with Elvis.

T:About five years before dying Zeki began to write about death.

S:He would write songs about dying? About when he would be gone?

T:He was always giving interviews about the Foundation that he was about to establish for the people, his fans. The Zeki Muren Foundation was to educate young people, and help them enter singing careers. But he never created it.

S:It never started?

A:Yes and no. He had no heirs to leave his money to so he gave the bulk of it to the military. For this I cannot forgive him.

T:Actually, his Foundation was established to help disabled veterans, but half of his money also goes to education, to the Turkish Education Foundation.

S:Did Zeki have any following outside of Turkey? Or is it necessary to know the Turkish language to appreciate him?

A:Most singers are known for their own songs, like Elton John, has his own songs, or Frank Sinatra has songs that made him famous. So on and so forth. But in Turkey, popular singers do not particularly have their own songs, although Zeki had written many songs himself. These singers sing the songs of other composers; and it is not in their monopoly. Everybody and anybody can sing these songs. And there have been various interpretations, not versions even, just interpretations of these songs by, let’s say, a dozen singers. So when a singer dies, there are other singers who will continue to sing the songs that he first made popular. Any popular song can be sung by any singer, in a good way, in a better way, or in a worse way. And the singer’s fame depends upon how good he or she sings. So this is the reason why I believe that Zeki may possibly be forgotten because there are always good singers to sing the same songs the public loves. Yes, people may say, "Oh, Zeki used to sing this song better!" but for how long? Maybe for two years, maybe ten years, maybe fifteen years. But he won’t be an idol forever. In the market place there are hundreds of singers, and new fresh singers arrive every day.

T:In Turkish classical music the important thing is that you don’t sing the song, in fact you read the song. Because it’s something like a lesson or an exercise. It has its own rules, and you have to obey those rules; if you don’t, you sing wrongly, interpreting it incorrectly. So a singer reads the song and can’t do it however he likes, but has to obey the rules.

A:But isn’t that the same as saying that nobody can sing like Frank Sinatra?

T:But this is different.

A:Both Zeki’s and Sinatra’s songs are sung by many others and yet you don’t get the same sense of exhilaration when you hear them.

T:This is related to his time, his era. Zeki Muren has more than style. He knows because he studied his lessons well. That is why he is better than all others, or the best. We have a record of him at home when he was nineteen years old. That’s the record that made him popular. He sang the old songs from the Ottoman period, and he sang them perfectly. He studied in the famous music academy in Uskudar and was a good student there. What made him so popular was because he sang perfectly. Music authorities thought he would be absolutely great, but then he became a she singing pop songs, not classical music.

S:In Zeki’s first recording when he was nineteen years old, can you tell when listening to it if it’s a man or a woman singing?

T:His voice is young and fresh, but male.

A:It’s not an imitation of a woman’s voice, he still sings in a man’s voice. His appearance is feminine, but not his voice.

T:When I listen to Janis Joplin I sometimes wonder if this is a woman or a man singing?

S:What do you think Zeki Muren’s contribution is? What is his legacy? He’s dead, he cannot be changed, but his records and his movies exist. What will people in the cities of Van and Erzincan and other outposts in the east learn about Zeki Muren in the next twenty years?

A:Modern history will show that Zeki Muren was the first of these male singers to explicitly present himself in a feminine manner. He was the first, and he opened the way for others.

S:So he was a pioneer for those who came in behind him, and in doing so has he created a new genre of music?

A:As I see it, Zeki wasn’t the kind of singer who bastardized his songs to give greater prominence to his on-stage style. There are others who do this but I wouldn’t consider them as great singers. But Zeki was quality. As a professional he performed two functions very well. He sang very beautifully, according to rules and traditions that this music required. And on the other hand he had his own way of presenting himself to the public which was extremely daring, considering the conservatism of his age. If you consider that no other example existed, anywhere else on earth probably, of this sort of thing, then he was a pioneer. For his voice and daring style, which he combined in a unique way, I think he will be remembered.

S:I think Zeki Muren was a classically trained artist of traditional song, who used modern presentation techniques and added a certain unique individual twist or style. But why was he appreciated, and so loved?

T:He was a singer and a showman. Perhaps the most famous photograph of Zeki is him standing in very high heels with a sash across his chest like a beauty queen, and with lots of eye make-up.

S:Was that taken when he was a little younger and thinner?

T&A:No, no, no.

A:When he wore these outfits he was forty years old. He wasn’t thin and he wasn’t young. In a funny way he didn’t look like a drag queen but like a grotesque with lots of make-up. He did not want to appear as a woman; it was something different. He still wanted it clear that he was a man, but dressed very extravagantly.

T:Zeki was a man; he was totally a man. A sweetheart. A regular Turkish man.

S:Why was he more popular with women than with men?

A:That I cannot answer.

T:In Turkey there is something not found in many other countries. We have entertainment matinees for ladies only. Only women come to listen to singers, and they bring their food and tea with them, like a picnic. They eat together, they dance together, they laugh together, they cry together. All of these women have been at one time, or will become daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law. Usually brides have friction with their husband’s mother. And the singer at the matinees takes the mother-in-law’s side when he sings his love songs. And the sons traditionally side with their mothers, so these are the love song themes at the ladies only matinees.

A:This is why some men pretend to be more manly than they really are, because they are still dominated by their mothers.

T:Zeki was very popular at these matinees and made many jokes about the fights between mothers and daughters-in-law. My mother has told me that not one single seat could be found, and at some matinees there was standing room only.

S:So Zeki’s colorful style changed some drab aspects of Turkish life?

A:In fairness, one must recognize his contribution to cultural change.

T:For example, people in those days didn’t have enough money to go to gazinos or nightclubs to listen to Zeki. These afternoon matinees were much cheaper and an acceptable alternative. The entertainment may even have been better since all the audience were women.

S:Because women so loved Zeki’s talents, did any men actively dislike him?

A:No, no, no. I never heard of it. Men appreciated his voice and how well he sang. They did not like the way he performed on stage. But they tried to differentiate between Zeki’s singing and style. In private, not publicly, some men might mock him and make fun of Zeki’s movements and gestures.

S:When Zeki died did Turkey mourn? Did government leaders speak of the loss of a popular person?

A:No. We are not really honoring and respecting him. A singer dies suddenly, presumably loved by everybody and there is no national sentiment.

T:He was sent a telegram; that’s what the politicians do in Turkey. But that is usual business, they send them to everybody.

S:I wonder if there was so little public expression of sorrow because people don’t know what to say. Was there some degree of confusion?

T:For those who felt sadness over Zeki’s death, there was still comfort in playing his music on records and videos. Zeki was unique, without precedent—an original.

A:There is no question that there is no precedent. There had not been a public person like him before. Nor had audiences ever learned how to honestly and genuinely show their profound grief. I think Turkey is still mourning the death of Zeki Muren.

S:Thank you both for sharing your thoughts and contributing to this discussion of life in modern Turkey. I believe Zeki Muren is a contemporary cultural hero. He entertained audiences but at the same time, he seriously engaged people, making them pay attention to what he was presenting and forced people to respect him. Zeki made Turkey love him.

Sean Kileen
Lead Belly Letter
P. O. Box 6679
Ithaca, New York 14851