"I have always wanted to sing as far as I can remember. I wanted to go on stage. I would make short dresses out of my sweaters, grab a hairbrush for the mic, and would pretend to perform in front of my mirror."
Hadise Açıkgöz, commonly known as Hadise, was born on October 22, 1985 in the small Belgian town of Mol outside Antwerp and is the second daughter in her family from Sivas, Turkey.
After completing her secondary education, she began working in various jobs to support her family. While she was working to support her family, she completed her degree in marketing at the university. Hadise had only one dream: To be a world star.
Hadise recalls her dream stating, "I have always wanted to sing as far back as I can remember. I wanted to go on stage. I would make short dresses out of my sweaters, grab a hairbrush for the mic, and would pretend to perform in front of my mirror. I knew that I wanted to be a singer. I wanted to travel the world and share my experiences, my music, and my voice with everybody."
She stepped onto the music scene in 2003, appearing in the first season of Idols 2003 singing competition in Belgium. Although she was invited to the auditions and received positive praise from the panel of judges, she didn't make it to the finals.
Six months later, she was approached with an offer for her debut album and accepted it. She signed an album deal with 2 Brains Records, worked with Yves Gaillard for her first single "Sweat," and released it on November 1, 2004.
The single peaked at number 19 on Belgium chart Ultratop. After the success of her debut single, she released her debut album also titled Sweat, and her second single "Stir Me Up" in November 2005. After her second single reached the 22nd spot on Belgium charts, Hadise also started getting recognition in Turkey. "Stir Me Up" was among the most listened-to songs in Turkey during the summer of 2005. Her third single, "Milk Chocolate Girl" peaked at number 13 in the Belgium Ultratop 50 and became Hadise's most successful single to date. In Belgium, Hadise was nicknamed after the song's title "Milk Chocolate Girl," which helped her reach mainstream appeal.
Her first concert in Turkey was in 2006 at Club Loop in the coastal city of İzmir. Hadise, who frequented Turkey that year, also participated in many TV shows and other events.
In September 2007, she released her first single, "A Good Kiss," off her upcoming self-titled second studio album. The music video was filmed in Istanbul and the song made a big impact in Turkey and Europe.
"My Body," the second single off the second album Hadise, continued her rapid ascension by reaching the eighth spot on the Belgium Ultratop 50 on February 23, 2008, and it was the highest entry of that week.
Her second album Hadise and was released in June 2008 with 16 tracks. Hadise co-authored the lyrics for ten songs on the album with Yves Gaillard. There were two Turkish songs on the album with one titled "Deli Oğlan," the Turkish version of "A Good Kiss." The singer, songwriter, and producer Sezen Aksu wrote the Turkish lyrics for the song, and the music video was shot by Emir Khalilzadeh. The song was quickly reached the top spot on all the music charts in Turkey.
Most people in Turkey wanted to see Hadise perform at Eurovision that year after the success of the song, and Hadise represented Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 after being selected by the national public broadcaster TRT. Hadise prepared three songs for the Eurovision competition and presented them to TRT. TRT selected "Düm Tek Tek" among the others and asked her to perform this song at Eurovision 2009. Hadise debuted the song in her live performance on a nationally broadcasted New Year's Eve program to open the 2009 New Year, which was the top-rated program that night.
During the Eurovision 2009 semifinals in Moscow on the night of May 12, Hadise came onto stage to represent Turkey, which was in ninth place, and she qualified for the final round with 172 points. On the night of May 16, she represented her country, which was in 18th place, and she came in fourth with 177 points. She was the contestant with the highest number of votes in Eurovision for their country with a 204-point when the jury votes removed.
Hadise remarked on the contest stating, “I always said I would be in the top five, and I came in fourth. I am proud of it. I achieved my goal. I never aimed to come in first, because the final round was tough. While I'd have liked to come in first, I didn't push for it and instead, prayed to be in the top five. God accepted my prayers. When I heard the results, I wasn't disappointed. I was glad and relieved."
"Düm Tek Tek" became a big hit not only in Turkey but also in many other countries around the world. The song reached the #1 spot on the Belgian Flemish Chart (Ultratop 50) and stayed there for three weeks. It reached the 24th spot in Belgium's Wallonia (Ultratop 40), 2nd on the Greek Billboard, and 12th on the Swedish Singles Chart. The song also entered the UK Singles Chart at #127 on May 30.
After the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, "Düm Tek Tek" became a hit on iTunes and entered iTunes charts in Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK. Hadise achieved her most unexpected success in Japan. When "Düm Tek Tek" peaked at #7 on the Japan Hit Charts, the song was released as a single in Japan. Afterwards, Hadise went on a promotional tour in Japan, was interviewed on TV and radio programs, and performed concerts.
She released two albums in Turkish and English after Eurovision. Her third studio album, Fast Life, consisted of 11 tracks and was released on May 14, 2009. The title track "Fast Life" was the first music video for the album. Hadise received the Best Female Singer in the Balkans award from the Balkan Music Awards that year.
Her fourth studio and first Turkish language album Kahraman came out on June 19, 2009. There were 13 tracks in total, four of them being versions, and she shot the first music video of the album for the song "Evlenmeliyiz."
She went on to perform concerts in several countries during 2010. Indonesia and Egypt were the most unique, with Hadise being the first Turkish singer to have a concert in those countries.
After the release of Fast Life, "Düm Tek Tek" peaked at #1 on Indonesia's Top Hit Charts. According to the results of a study in Indonesia's capital of Jakarta, with a population of 50 million people, most used Hadise's "Düm Tek Tek" as their ringtone.
After the success of Fast Life in Indonesia, Hadise became a regular guest on TV shows and interviewed for newspapers and magazines there. She supported a campaign organized by MTV for the victims of child sex trafficking and took the stage at the MTV's Exit concert and two other concerts held in the Hard Rock Cafe.
Hadise began working on her fifth album in 2010. She made a duet with Gary Nesta Pine named "Dirty On The Dance Floor" during the sessions, and the track was released on iTunes.
Her fifth studio and second Turkish language album Aşk Kaç Beden Giyer? was released on April 14, 2011 and had 9 tracks. The opening track and the first music video, "Superman," was written by Gulsen. Hadise released the music video for the first time on her Facebook and YouTube pages on April 11, 2011.
On "Superman", Hadise comments, "I love Turkish instruments. It runs in our blood. However, there is only one oriental feel somehow in this album, and it is "Superman". The rest is musically very different."
The single quickly became a major hit and peaked at #1 on several hit lists in Turkey. In June 2011, Hadise made a spectacular performance on one of Turkey's most important awards ceremony, the Golden Butterfly Award Ceremony, and her performance got over 30 million views on YouTube breaking a record.
Her second and the third music videos from this album were the title track "Aşk Kaç Beden Giyer?" and the song "Mesajımı Almıştır O."
Hadise became the Turkish singer who performed the most concerts in 2011 and 2012 after the success of the album Aşk Kaç Beden Giyer.
In 2011, Hadise joined the panel of judges for the singing competition The Voice Turkey and continues to sit on the panel to date. Hadise displayed her personality more and increased the number of her fans through the show.
She released the single and the music video of "Biz Burdayız" on June 12, 2012. Hülya Açıkgöz was the director of the music video. Her next single "Visal" came out on March 15, 2013, and it was the first Turkish dubstep song.
After a hiatus of three years, her sixth studio and third Turkish language album Tavsiye was released under the label Pasaj Music on August 4, 2014. Hülya Açıkgöz directed the music video for the track "Nerdesin Aşkım", for which Alper Narman and Onur Özdemir wrote the lyrics and music, and was arranged by İskender Paydaş.
About her album Tavsiye, Hadise expressed her feelings stating, "We all have troubles, but each day we have one less problem or our burden is relieved. That's why we have to live our lives fully and enjoy it. Don't be the one of those gaping and gawking, live it! I dedicate this album to my angels, my admirers and Team Hadise."
The second video clip from Tavsiye was for "Prenses." The music videos for her songs "Yaz Günü" and "Bu Aralar" shot in the Dominican Republic and went over big.
After another three years, Hadise released her next album Şampiyon, which won the wide range of music lovers. The album was released under the Pasaj Müzik label and had contributions from various top musicians, including Alper Narman, Onur Özdemir, Gökhan Şahin, Emrah Karaduman, Zeki Güner, Emrah Bayar, and Cem Ozan Aktaş.
After the success of Şampiyon, in collaboration with Fanta, she released the song "Geliyorum Yanına", which was written by Gulsen. Şenol Korkmaz directed the music video, which was screened for the first time during Harbiye Open Air Concerts.
Hadise describes her latest single "Küçük Bir Yol" as "the song of my life." The song has become number one on all platforms since it was released. Şenol Korkmaz directed music video for the single.
"Küçük Bir Yol" is the first phase of her EP, which will come out in the last months of 2020.