Beşköylü Adem

Beşköylü Adem — Biography

Born Adem Ekiz on March 1, 1980, in the village of Konuklu (Kalis) in the Beşköy area of Trabzon's Köprübaşı district, the musician known as Beşköylü Adem finished his schooling locally before completing high school at Köprübaşı Lisesi. He picked up the kemençe, the bowed fiddle central to Black Sea folk music, as a primary-school child, and after graduation he moved with his family to Istanbul and devoted himself full-time to a career as a performer of Karadeniz (Black Sea) folk songs.

He released his debut album, "Yanarım Ateşine," in 2000, then stepped away from music for a period of military service. He resumed his recording career with "Romaika Tragodias," finished in Greece and released in 2005, on which he sang in Pontic Greek (Romeyika), a language he speaks natively; the record won him listeners in Greece as well as Turkey. A third album, "Gülüm Demedim mi Sana," followed in 2007 in collaboration with kaval player Kerim Aydın.

He performs under the stage name Beşköylü Adem in tribute to Beşköy, the town where he was born and raised, which was destroyed by a flood in 1998; the name is both an expression of solidarity with the community's loss and an effort to keep Beşköy's memory alive. He remains known in Trabzon-region media as one of the more prominent voices blending Black Sea folk music with a Pontic Greek repertoire.