Safiye Ayla

Safiye Ayla — Biography

Safiye Ayla was born in 1907 in Istanbul; her father died before her birth, and her mother, a former Ottoman court servant, died when Safiye was three. Orphaned, she grew up at the Çağlayan orphanage in Kağıthane, was adopted by MP Şeyh Servet Efendi, and enrolled at a teacher-training college in Bursa; illness forced her to leave before graduation, and she worked as a teaching assistant in Eyüpsultan. There she studied usul and makam with Eyyubi Mustafa Efendi, and in 1930 she made her first recordings for the Columbia label.

Dismissed from teaching after performing on stage in a black smock, she rose to headline status at Küçükçiftlik Parkı and the Moulin Rouge casino. In 1932 she first sang before Atatürk, performing to great acclaim the War of Independence song "Yanık Ömer"; Atatürk suggested it be arranged for Western-style polyphony, and after his death Ayla honored that wish, having Muammer Sun orchestrate it and recording it with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra.

She married the composer Şerif Muhittin Targan in 1950, remaining married until his death in 1967; she then withdrew from casino stages for monthly Saray Cinema concerts (1951-1974) and a final 1987 performance at the AKM. She died at the American Hospital on 14 January 1998; under a will drawn up in 1968, she left her estate to the Turkish Education Foundation.