Ayşe Ajda Pekkan (Turkish pronunciation: [aʒˌda pe̞kˈkan]; 12 February 1946, Istanbul, Turkey), also known as Superstar, is a Turkish pop singer and actress. Through a career spanning five decades thus far, Pekkan has released more than 20 albums and, with Sezen Aksu, is the most commercially successful female Turkish music artist with the sales of over 42 million copies worldwide.
She is nicknamed the Superstar of Turkish pop music. Although famed for her music, Pekkan started her career as an actress with appearances in almost 50 films. During her music career, Pekkan has recorded songs in nine languages. Apart from Turkish, she is also fluent in English and French. In 1998 the Government of Turkey was awarded the title of State Artist to be given by the Ministry of Culture on the recommendation of the Ministry of Culture. She was awarded the honorary distinction of Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2013.
Ajda Pekkan moved to France in early 70s and she released her first French single after a collaboration with Mort Shuman. The success of her songs resulted in a series of concerts with Enrico Macias at the Paris Olympia in 1976. In acknowledgement of her nickname, Pekkan released an album called Superstar in 1977. The same year, she participated in the Yamaha Music Festival in Tokyo to great success. She released German and French records in the early 1970s, and her Pour Lui and “Viens Dans Ma Vie”, became very successful in France. At this pinnacle, she released her second album Süperstar II in 1979.
On 19 April 1980, Pekkan represented Turkey with the entry “Petr’Oil” at the Eurovision Song Contest in Den Haag, the Netherlands. She then decided to take a break and temporarily moved to the USA. After returning to Turkey, she recorded two failed albums, Sen Mutlu Ol (You be happy) and Sevdim Seni (I Loved You) in the then current trend of Turkish music, but returned to her original type of Western pop and gave concerts in 1983 with enormous success. That same year, she released Süperstar III which she followed with Süperstar IV (1987). Superstar III was a huge success; coincidentally, it is her only album that is not available on CD. However, Superstar IV was not succeeded as Superstar III. It was last album on LP. She married with Mehmet Ali Bars, who is a businessman, in 1984 and divorced in 1990.
Source: Wikipedia