So it was my first time seeing Karsu Dönmez performing but I have been hearing about her for a long time. Being two years younger than me (1990), Karsu was born in the Netherlands. So we can consider her as a Dutch-Turk. She still has to work on her Turkish though she sings also in Turkish :)
I have to say I had much fun during the gig, I went to the concert alone but I did not get bored a second. Her band was fun! And also when you have the “trumpet”, nothing can be boring I guess! So we had a trumpet, sax, piano, electro-guitar, bass, drums!
She tells you about her story, she used to work at her father’s Turkish kebab restaurant in Amsterdam and there they had a piano and she was playing, daydreaming about being a well-known musician and now there you go!
Because of her hair style she gave me a “Princess” image at the first sight, but actually she does not act so! I loved her fringed top, and it gives a very nice dynamism to her dance movements. She is a big fan of Atatürk and it was his death anniversary on 10th of November so she dedicated a folk song to him:
She gave me a bit of a Regina Spektor & Rachael Yamagata & Fatima Spar ( and the Freedom Fries) & Feist kinda feeling. She covers many songs! From Usher to Barış Manço. Barış Manço’s wife Lale Manço was also present at the concert and she greeted Karsu while she was singing his “Domates, Biber, Patlıcan” :)
What I found surprising was she covered Mustafa Sandal’s “Jest oldu” which made me go back to 90s all of a sudden.
Then she told us a story about a voluntary job she was in, where she met a Syrian friend from Aleppo. This friend is currently living in Amsterdam but lost all of his friends ( I dont remember if it is a guy now) in the war and made a decoration at his kitchen with all these beloved ones black&white photos as he is an interior-architect. He taught her an Arabic song, Karsu sang it. After some efforts, thanks to Amira I figured out it was Assala’s “Bo’dak ‘Any” -“بعدك عنى” , I really liked the song (don’t have to mention I like Assala a lot too :) ) So now I took the challenge I will sing this song as well ( already memorizing the lyrics!)
