Aziza A | ar

Aziza A. ( Aziza is a word in Arabic literally meaning "precious" or "holy"; her real name is Alev Yıldırım), was born in 1971, in Berlin, as the daughter of a Turkish family living in Germany. She first lived in Kreuzberg, then in Stegliz, finally moving to Berlin after school. She started her career, in 1996, presenting the children's program, Dr. Mag, which went on air every Saturday on ZDF, Germany's second biggest TV channel. In the meanwhile, with a growing interest in music and the hip-hop culture, she started taking music courses. Her parents returning to their homeland, in 1999, Aziza A remained in Berlin with her brother who worked as a graphic designer. First taking stage in Berlin (Franzclub, Quasimodo, A-Trane, Tranenpalast and Féte de la musique), Aziza gradually got more and more involved in music and took a major step to make it the crucial part of her life. Her first album, "Es ist Zeit" (It's Time) was released in 1997. That same year she launched out on a tour to Germany, Hungary, France, Switzerland, Holland and Austria to support her album. Following the great success she gained by her debut album, Aziza A became known as the first Turkish hip-hopper girl in Germany and her name was listed among that year's most important hundred people by Zitty magazine, published in Berlin. BBC World TV referred to her as the "New European".

In 1998, Aziza A went on a tour which included some of the major German cities, together with the famous German lady rap star, Cora E. That year she took stage at Germany's highly acclaimed TV awards evening, Flagge Zeigen, and started her radio show program in SFB (Channel 4), which she still continues. She played her own life in a minor part she took in Kutluğ Ataman's motion picture "Lola ve Billidikid" (1998). The piece called "His" whose lyrics belong to her and which was composed by Wolfgang Galler was included in the soundtrack of this movie. Again in that same year, she performed at the Roskilde festival in Denmark.

In 1999, she took part in the film called "Home Sweet Home" which was made for ZDF and directed by Cristina Kabifch (camera: Florian Ballhause). The following year, she took stage in Hong-Kong, together with the Goethe Institute and the Berlin based German artists performing in different fields of art.

She gave both an opening and a closing concert, in the German pavillion, at Expo 2000.

In 2001, she and her group participated the "Female Choice" tour in Berlin, which was attended by German female rappers.

Some of her songs were included in compilation albums such as Microfon Mafia, Kanak Atak and Mavi Müzik 01/00. She took part in the play called "Kopstoff", adopted by Feridun Zaimoğlu, one of the most outstanding personages of drama stationed in Germany. She went on tour in Europe with her theatre group.

Brought up among Turks, the largest minority group in Germany, Aziza A breathes a new life and voice to hip-hop and cunningly reflects the simplicity, attraction and truth of street life through her music which is a blend of funk, soul, jazz and R&B, all deeply rooted in the street. As an artist creating a new musical language by the Oriental hip-hop style and built a bridge between the East and the West, also writes the lyrics herself.

Aziza A is set to sweep through the musical scene, both in Turkey and abroad, with her new album, "Kendi Dünyam", released by Doublemoon Records (DM0014-2001).

New album Kulak Misafiri released in 2009
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