page_title: Sertab Erener
section_title: 1999–2004: Sertab Erener, Turuncu, Eurovision and No Boundaries
hierarchical_section_title: Sertab Erener / Life and career / 1999–2004: Sertab Erener, Turuncu, Eurovision and No Boundaries
caption_attribution_description: Sertab Erener
context_page_description: Sertab Erener is a Turkish singer, songwriter and composer. With her coloratura soprano voice, she started working as a backing vocalist for Sezen Aksu, and with Aksu's help she released her first studio album in the 1990s. Because of her education in classical music, she initially had difficulties in performing pop music. Although she did experimental works from time to time, she eventually preferred to focus on making pop music instead of making avant-garde works, in order to make her music heard by a larger audience. In some of her works, she combined Western music and Eastern music, and benefited from operas as well as classical Turkish music together with ethnic elements. With her entrance to Europe's market in the early 2000s, many of her works were also sold in Turkey as well as European countries.
  With Sezen Aksu's help, she made her debut in 1992 with the album Sakin Ol!, and made herself known as a Turkish pop music artist in the 1990s by releasing the albums Lâ'l, Sertab Gibi and Sertab Erener.
context_section_description: Sony and Columbia released Erener's self-titled album in March 1999, which included works such as the poem "Makber" by Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan and Mozart's "Der Hölle Rache". The album rose to the top of D&R's List of Best-Selling Albums in Turkey and sold 427,000 copies. "Yanarım", "Zor Kadın", "Vur Yüreğim" and "Yolun Başında" were the songs from Sertab Erener that were turned into music videos. "Vur Yüreğim" won the Best Lyrics award at the Kral TV Video Music Awards. "Zor Kadın" also became a number-one hit and was played on radios regularly. It was later re-released as a duet with Voice Male. In the same year Erener was featured on the song "Private Emotion" by Ricky Martin. Erener was scheduled to perform at Efes Pilsen's 13th establishment anniversary on 16 August, which was set to be followed by a tour inside Turkey, but the concert was cancelled due to the 1999 İzmit earthquake. In September she continued her tour and donated her proceeds from the concerts to the earthquake survivors. In accordance with her plans, in 2000 she released the compilation album Sertab and gave a number of concerts in Europe. In April, for the National Sovereignty and Children's Day, she gave a concert at Ephesus in front of 20,000 people. To make herself more known in Europe, she released the EP "Bu Yaz" in July. Greek singer Mando was featured on the Turkish-Greek song "Aşk / Fos", which was included in the EP. Hürriyet wrote that with this duet Erener successfully earned a reputation in Greece.
  In May 2001, Erener's fifth studio album Turuncu was released. She later talked about her name choice for the album: "Turuncu [Orange] represents positive energy besides being a color. My album also carries a cheerful, warm, positive energy. I made this album trying to link people to life. Because I had major health problems, even in times of sadness, I always preferred to stay positive." The album ranked number-one on D&R's List of Best-Selling Albums and sold 260,000 copies. The songs "Kumsalda" and "Söz Bitti" from Turuncu were later turned into music videos. In December, Erener won the Best Turkish Pop Music Female Soloist award at the Golden Butterfly Awards, and her new single "Kendime Yeni Bir Ben Lazım" was published.
  In January 2003, TRT announced that Erener would represent Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. In February the name of the song was announced as "Everyway That I Can" and it was stated that the lyrics were in English. Turkish Language Association called for using a Turkish song instead to properly represent Turkish culture. Erener responded to the criticism by saying: "It has to be in English to comply with world standards. Half of the world listens to English music, why should they not listen to a Turkish artist who sings in English? [...] People do not understand Turkish. If we find it difficult [to sing a suitable song] in our own language, why should we? When TRT asked me to write a song, I gave them my conditions. I said 'I want to sing the song in English'." The song was released on 8 March, and on 24 May in Riga, it earned 167 points earning Turkey its first victory in the contest and making it the host for the 2004 competition. "Everyway That I Can" entered the music charts of many European countries. In Sweden and Greece, it topped the official lists. Due to the song's commercial success in these two countries, it received a gold and platinum certification from the two of them respectively.
  After returning to Turkey, Erener received various awards due to her victory in Eurovision. She met with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and a reception was organized to celebrate her victory. She was also given the State Medal of Distinguished Service. She also received two Honorary Awards at the 1st MÜ-YAP Music Awards and 10th Kral TV Video Music Awards. She later performed Bob Dylan's song "One More Cup of Coffee" for the film Masked and Anonymous which was released in July 2003. In August, she played in one of the films prepared by UNICEF and Ministry of National Education for
caption: Erener opening the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, Istanbul
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