MELIKE ŞAHIN
AKKOR (Pre-Order)
Singer, songwriter and composer Melike Şahin’s new album AKKOR via Gülbaba Records in partnership with Day Dreamer.
Singer, songwriter and composer Melike Şahin is set to release new album AKKOR via Gülbaba Records in partnership with Day Dreamer on 8th November, 2024. An empowering assertion of survival that propels traditional Anatolian pop and folk influences into the future, AKKOR rises like a phoenix from the flames to reintroduce the Turkish superstar diva to an international audience. An expression of Şahin’s personal growth, the album is an affirmation of her growing status as the voice of a generation, and whose lyrics have been adopted as a call to rights for the women’s movement in Turkey.
Recorded live in London with producer Martin Terefe (London Brew, Buika, Jamie Cullum), AKKOR features a selection of the most talented and forward-thinking musicians on the scene, including guitarists Dave Okumu and violinist Raven Bush, as well as Sterling Campell (David Bowie) on drums, Glen Scott (Eric Bibb) and Nikolaj Torp Larsen on keyboards. Bringing an international feel to her heart-rending performances, the record represents the most focussed and complete expression of Şahin’s sound to date.
Powerful and vulnerable in equal measure, AKKOR demonstrates an orchestral grandeur and a dramatic flair drawn from Şahin’s love for traditional Anatolian pop and folk music, injected with the urgency of contemporary production. Bound together by Şahin’s inimitable voice AKKOR skips between Middle Eastern melancholy and classic disco hedonism, for an album that is as stylistically open, pluralistic and affirmative as the messages the music carries.
Although she does not describe herself as an activist, Şahin’s poignant lyrics have come to define the women’s movement in Turkey, with the words, “I deserve each and every inch of this smile,”adorning protest banners on International Women’s Day and celebratory posters at Pride.
“This is the moment that I told myself, Yes, I am an artist,” Şahin says. “I am bearing all of the other things because of this, because I am affecting people's lives, and I am giving some power.” AKKOR – which translates as candescent – finds Melike rising again and burning brighter than ever before.
Overall though, Şahin says AKKOR is her rebirth album – a statement of self-empowerment, through which she hopes to continue to raise up the voices of those around her. “You are seeing a woman who falls down, but who rises again and flies,” she explains. “Maybe she doesn't win, maybe she doesn't lose, but she's a survivor,” Şahin concludes. “She is a phoenix.”
