Tangos transport listeners to another world. They are an invitation to love, a story of endless passions. Tangos masterfully serve as the interpreters of these deep emotions. And if you ask who carried these beautiful melodies across generations with an unmatched voice in Turkey, people would say, “Seyyan Hanım.”

Seyyan Hanım was born in 1913 in Salonica, the only daughter in a family of Karakaş heritage with five children. While some sources list her birthplace as Istanbul, family accounts indicate she was born in Salonica. Her father, Hikmet Bey, and mother, Rabia Hanım, raised her with a strong sense of equality. Her father, emphasizing her equal status to her brothers, gave her the name Seyyan, meaning “equal.” During the population exchange (Mübadele), like many families from Salonica, they migrated to Istanbul and settled in a mansion in Kanlıca. Her father, Hikmet Bey, worked as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s special courier for a time. Tragically, while sailing across the Black Sea to join Mustafa Kemal Pasha in Samsun, he was assassinated when Seyyan was only seven years old.

After completing primary school, Seyyan, encouraged by her brother Osman Bey (the one to whom the above photo was sent to), enrolled in the Istanbul Conservatory and took lessons from Monsieur Talarico. While performing Italian and French songs at the conservatory, she was discovered. At the age of 16, she began performing original Turkish music at the Kadıköy Operetta Stage (the current Süreyya Cinema). These performances were recorded and released on records, making her one of the pioneering women in Turkish performing arts, particularly in tango music.
Between 1930 and 1932, she performed for a year and a half at Moulin Rouge, located in the current Atlas Cinema building. She recorded Mazi Kalbimde Yaradır (The Past is a Wound in My Heart), composed by Necip Celal Andel, Turkey’s first Turkish tango. The success of this record led her to record many more of Necip Celal Bey’s tangos. After meeting and marrying Lieutenant Sait Oskay, she left the stage and moved with her husband to various cities in Anatolia, where they raised four children. Yet, she remained connected to her art, releasing around 50 records under a ten-year contract with the His Master’s Voice label.

In 1942, after the birth of her second child, she retired completely from the music industry. Decades later, in 1978, a radio producer rediscovered her in Istanbul, leading to her participation in a few radio programs. In 1979, she was the guest of honor at a Fehmi Ege memorial night, where she performed at the Atatürk Cultural Center. She gave her final interview to Murat Belge in 1985. Seyyan Hanım passed away in Istanbul in 1989.

Seyyan Hanım embraced the unique and modern culture of Salonica, carried the values of gender equality, and became one of the immortal names in the artistic realm of Atatürk’s Republic.

Author: Ardınç Akman (Distant Relative)