Ayla Dikmen

Ayla Dikmen — Biography

Ayla Dikmen was born on 25 March 1944 in Kütahya to Ali Rıza Dikmen and Bedriye Dikmen; her father played the ud and piano, her mother the violin. She began singing in her school choir at Aydın Lisesi, then went to Ankara to study at the Academy of Commercial Sciences, working for a time as a stenographer at parliament, before enrolling at Istanbul University's Faculty of Political Science.

Steered by İlham Gencer, she first worked professionally alongside Yavuz Özışık, then joined composer Şerif Yüzbaşıoğlu's orchestra under the stage name "Parla Nur"; she was crowned top female vocalist at the Second Boğaziçi Music Festival in 1964 and took first place at the Balkan Melodies Festival the following year with Niksar'ın Fidanları. A steady stream of singles from that period made her name, with tracks like Yanan Mum, Nereye and Aşk Defteri keeping her a familiar face on television music shows through the 1970s and 80s.

From 1968, when they met in Istanbul, she spent twenty-two years alongside İzmir businessman Enis Berki until her death. She stepped away from music following the military takeover, and uterine cancer took her life at 46 in İzmir, after which she was laid to rest at Kokluca Cemetery. Her recording of Anlamazdın, decades after its release, was carried back to the top of the charts once director Çağan Irmak used it to close his 2008 film Issız Adam.