Hadise Açıkgöz
Hadise Açıkgöz, (born October 22, 1985 in Mol, Belgium), commonly known as just Hadise, is a popular TMF award winning Turkish-Belgian R&B singer, she is also a TV presenter in both Turkey and Belgium. She is best known for her hit singles "Stir Me Up", "My Body", "Deli Oğlan" and her current hit single "Aşkkolik".
Since the launch of her career, Hadise has thus far released two studio albums, "Sweat" & "Hadise", in both Belgium and Turkey. She is currently recording her third studio album, as revealed on her official Myspace page.
Hadise is also set to represent Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song Düm Tek Tek. Hadise will be the first singer not born in Turkey to represent the country.
Hadise is known for her unique songs, which experiment with R&B and Turkish Pop.
Biography
Early life and career debut
Hadise was born in the town of Mol, near Antwerp in Belgium, on 22 October 1985. Her parents are circassian descent and came from Sivas, Turkey and migrated to Belgium where they settled in the town of Mol. Hadise has two sisters and one brother; Hadise's name (meaning 'event' or 'occurrence') was her grandfather's idea and was actually intended for Hadise's older sister.
From an early age Hadise knew that she wanted to pursue a career in music, and although she has been a professional singer since the age of 17, she still continued her education and thus gained a BA in Marketing. She speaks several languages; Turkish, Flemish, English, French and German, having showed her ability to speak all 5 languages when appearing on the "Ibo Show" on June 20, 2008.
Hadise rose to fame in 2003 when she entered the Flemish version of Pop Idol, at the age of 17. Although she failed to win or even to make it to the semi-finals, she was offered a record contract after her performance on the show, in recognition of her talent. She is a good friend of the Flemish singer Kate Ryan, who represented Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006.
2005-2006: Sweat
See also: Sweat (Hadise album)
Soon after her appearance on Idool 2003, Hadise received a call from the manager of 2Brain records, Johan Hendrickx, who was impressed with her performance on the show and offered her an album contract. Hadise's debut single "Sweat" which was released in November 2004 peaked at #19 on the Ultratop 50 singles chart. She later released the single Stir Me Up which gained popularity in both Turkey and Belgium. Hadise then released her single Milk Chocolate Girl, the biggest hit from her debut album, which peaked at #13 on the Ultratop 50. A year after releasing her debut single, in November 2005, Hadise released her debut album Sweat, on which she collaborated with Yves Gaillard.
The album failed to chart on the Ultratop 50 albums chart, but spawned five Ultratop 50 hit singles included the song "Sisters", which was dedicated to her sisters, Hulya and Derya.
During the promotion of her debut album in Turkey, Hadise presented "Popstars", which was a huge success for her as the programme attracted an average audience of twenty million every week. This got her onto the covers of several Turkish magazines, such as Esquire, Tempo and Aktüel. She is, however, still based in Mol.
2008-present: Release of "Hadise"
See also: Hadise (album)
Hadise began work on her second studio album in December 2007. The album was recorded in many countries, including Turkey, France, Belgium and Italy. Hadise released the lead single, "A Good Kiss", in October 2007. This became her sixth consecutive single to chart on the Belgian "Ultratop 50". The song was also successful in Turkey, where it became her first single to chart on the "Turkish Billboard Chart". The song was later translated into Turkish by Sezen Aksu, becoming one of the most played songs in clubs in the summer of 2008.
She released two more singles in Belgium "My Body", which is her best-selling single in Belgium so far, and "My Man and the Devil on His Shoulder", her first single not making the Ultratop 50 chart.
In 2008, Hadise appeared on Serdar Ortaç's album Nefes on a track called "Düşman".
In July 2008, Hadise revealed that she met Kevin Federline during her trip to the USA and told the media that he had produced some music for her to use on a future album.
From October 2008, Hadise presented the Flemish version of X-factor.
Eurovision 2009
Although Hadise said in 2006 that she would never take part in the Eurovision Song Contest after her friend Kate Ryan failed to make it into the finals, Hadise announced in 2008 she would like to take part in the contest representing Turkey and on October 24, 2008 Hadise was confirmed as the Turkish representative at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009. She had been the favourite to represent Turkey as she has won numerous online polls. In late October İbrahim Şahin, the general manager of Turkish broadcaster TRT announced that Hadise had won the poll held by TRT to determine the act to represent Turkey and they therefore had chosen Hadise.
Hadise had complete control over the production of the song for the Eurovision Song Contest. She decided the lyricist, composer, producer and the language of the song- Turkish and as revealed by the Turkish newspaper "Sabah", Hadise eventually presented three songs to TRT, which then chose the entry internally.
Hadise told Belgian newspapers she wanted to represent Turkey instead of Belgium because she has already won many Belgian awards and also because the Eurovision Song Contest isn't popular in Belgium anymore, whereas it is in Turkey.
There were rumors that Hadise chose to represent Turkey rather than Belgium, because of a secret financial deal.
On December 31, 2008 the song was revealed to be Düm Tek Tek.
Television career
In 2006 Hadise presented Turkiye Popstar, a program with twenty million viewers a week.
In 2008-2009 she got a job as a presenter for the first time in her birth country Belgium. She was the main and only presenter of the seccond season of X Factor (Belgium) at Vtm. Although it was her first television job in Belgium, Hadise did a good job. She could even handle a critical moment where one of the judges left the contest during live television. Hadise was also praised by the candidats of X Factor for guiding them. Hadise presented like a professional but also showed her emotions: she often joked with the 2 finalists and she was seen crying when the group Miss Behave was voted out of the contest. At the final Hadise thanked Vtm for the chance they gave her.
Acting career
Hadise has rejected two offers to star in a film. One of the parts was the leading role in a Turkish movie. Not much is known about this film, apart from the fact that the film supposedly focused on 2 sisters, one of whom was to be played by Hadise.
In July 2008 Hadise was again offered a role in a Turkish comedy film. Although she turned down the two previous offers, she is still considering the part and it has been suggested she may take the offer as she is interested in the part and is currently reading through the script.
