Ajlan Büyükburç

Ajlan Büyükburç — Biography

Ajlan Büyükburç was born on 13 November 1970 in Istanbul, the daughter of noted pop singer Erol Büyükburç and Türkan Türker; her younger sister was Jeyan. She began guitar lessons from her father at eight and credited his archive of thousands of records with drawing her into jazz. At seventeen she started singing Turkish songs and spent time as a backing vocalist for Fatih Erkoç. As a student at Nişantaşı Anadolu Lisesi she was named best teenage female soloist in Milliyet's high-school music competition, then gained wider recognition on Aziz Üstel's programme Gecenin Konukları, where she met Mine Çağlıyan; the two formed the duo Ajlan-Mine and released the album Aşkolsun in December 1993.

After the duo split a year later, she performed solo in Istanbul's jazz clubs and hotels, released the EMI album Tutunup Kendime in 1995, and represented Turkey at a festival in Houston that year. From 1996 she played salsa and samba with the group Pasaporte Latino, kept up jazz projects with Selçuk Sun, performed with orchestras, and sang backing vocals on numerous other artists' recordings.

On the morning of 22 July 1999, three days after obtaining her driver's licence, Büyükburç died at 28 in a car accident in the Fethiye/Seydikemer area of Muğla, when her car rolled over and struck a parked tractor; she was buried at Kanlıca Cemetery. She has since been commemorated at her grave on death anniversaries, and a water well was dedicated in her name in 2026.