ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The body of renowned Kurdish singer Ayse San was returned to her hometown of Diyarbakir (Amed) in southeast Turkey on Wednesday, nearly three decades after her death from cancer and her burial in Izmir, the Diyarbakir municipality announced.
In a statement, the municipality said that her body “was welcomed by our co-mayors Serra Bucak and Dogan Hatun, [pro-Kurdish] DEM Party [Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party] parliamentarians, and her family,” adding that she was reburied in the city's Yanikoy Cemetery. A memorial program was also held in her honor.
San, widely known as “uncrowned queen” of Kurdish music, was born in 1938 in Diyarbakir and became a prominent cultural figure. Throughout her life, she lived in Diyarbakir, Istanbul, Baghdad, Germany, and Izmir.
Due to a ban on the Kurdish language and the broader repression of Kurdish artists, which led her to move to Germany, Shan initially sang in Turkish on the radio. In 1963, facing financial hardship, she moved to Istanbul, where she began performing in both Kurdish and Turkish. She later released her first cassette in both languages.
In 1979, she visited what is now Kurdistan Region, where she met several well-known Kurdish musicians, including Mohammed Arif Jaziri and Tahsin Taha. That same year, she performed under the name “Ayse Sana Ali” on Kurdish Radio Baghdad, further strengthening her ties with the Kurdish music scene and expanding her audience across the region.
Among her best-known songs are “Ez Xezalim,” “Qedere,” “Dayke,” “Le Le Be Mal,” and “Lorke Lorke.” Her song “Qedere” is a tribute to her 18-month-old daughter, who died in 1976.