iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

On senedir yerli sahnede olup bitenleri yakından takip ediyorum. Her senenin sonunda da en ilginç bulduğum albümleri yazıyorum. @velvele.net için hazırladığım bu listede 2025'ten 12 albümü bir araya getirdim. velvele.net/2025/12/30/k...

velvele.net

Kenan Behzat Sharpe seçti: Yerli sahnenin en iyi albümleri (2025)

Müzik eleştirmeni Kenan Behzat Sharpe, geleneksel yıl sonu seçkisiyle karşınızda

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

BEST OF TURKISH MUSIC 2025 🧵 The year is nearly over. The music magazines gave their top picks, everyone analyzed their own listening habits, and now it's time for our 7th annual list of songs from Turkey. Here are my mini-reviews and a playlist of my 50+ favorite songs!

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

I wrote about a chilling criminal case against one of Turkey’s most important musicians: Mabel Matiz. He and the girl group Manifest both face prison time over lyrics and dance moves. It’s all part of a new wave of repression in the name of “family values” www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Tu...

balcanicaucaso.org

Mabel Matiz: Music and Censorship in Turkey

Mabel Matiz, one of Turkey's most famous pop singers, risks prison for his latest song, which has been labeled "obscenity" because it sings of homosexual love: a further crackdown on the LGBT communit...

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

The latest single by Mabel Matiz, Turkey’s preeminent pop singer and songwriter, will likely be banned after a complaint by the Ministry of Family and Social Services about it being a “threat to the public order” for erotic song lyrics. Yes, lyrics are now cause for censorship.

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Amidst all the bad news here & in the world it's been hard to find a time to share the good, but I wanted say that I'm thrilled to have started as an assistant professor in the Cultural Studies program (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) at Sabancı University in Istanbul!

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Bad Bunny’nin son albümü bize gösteriyor ki Türkiye gibi coğrafyaların müziklerinin global piyasada nasıl yer bulduğunu önemseyen herkes onun örneğini dikkate almalı. Kendi yerel kültürü ve dilinden hiç taviz vermeden dünyaca ünlü oldu çünkü. 🧵

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

I wrote about women in rock music from Turkey to the US and how successive generations have been ignored or forgotten only later to be remembered and reclaimed. From Fanny to Eroğlu Kızlar Orkestrası, Liz Phair to Şebnem Ferah, you read the essay here: sheermag.substack.com/p/power-recl...

sheermag.substack.com

Power Reclaimed: Generations of Women Rockers From Turkey to the U.S.

For decades, women rockers from the U.S. and Turkey have rebelled against the patriarchal music industry. Their heritage of reclaiming power from "men in suits" continues strong today.

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

Listemin sonuna geldik. 2024’ün en iyi 3 albümünü açıkladığım yazı yayında!

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Bu senenin en iyi şarkılarını yazdım, yerli sahnenin 2024'teki trendlerini özetledim. Şimdi de @velvele.net için yılın en iyi albümlerini listeliyorum. Bugün itibariyle geri sayım başladı, 13’ten 9'a kadarki ilk bölüm yayında! velvele.net/2024/12/22/y...

velvele.net

Yerli sahnenin en iyi albümleri: 13’ten 9’a

Müzik eleştirmeni Kenan Behzat Sharpe, geride bırakmaya hazırlandığımız 2024’ün en iyi albümlerini Velvele okuyucuları için derledi. Aynı zamanda yerli müzik sahnesinin bir fotoğrafını çeken …

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Reposted by Kenan Behzat Sharpe

Éamann Mac Donnchada @almagroschool.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

some fabulous pop here, never mind if you, like me, don't understand the lyrics, feel those big emotions

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Yıl sonu en iyi albümler listemi paylaşmadan önce yerli pop, rap ve rock sahnesindeki genel trendler üzerine yazdım. Gerçekten farklı bir şey yapmaya çalıştım bu yazıda. Tek dileğim, 2024’teki müzik hayatımızla ilgili bir tartışma zemini sunması...

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Send us your paper proposals on James Baldwin's Istanbul! I'm happy to be a co-convener of this year's Keyman Modern Turkish Studies conference alongside İpek Kocaömer Yosmaoğlu. We're looking forward to a great conference in Istanbul with the support of Sabancı University.

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Reposted by Kenan Behzat Sharpe

Sedat Kapanoğlu @ssg.dev · 12/12/2024

kenan’s playlist last year was fantastic. now 2024 edition is out: 🥳

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

BEST OF TURKISH MUSIC 2024 🧵 The year is nearly over. The music mags gave their top picks, Spotify got unwrapped, & now it's time for our list of music from Turkey. Here are my mini-reviews & a playlist of my 50+ favorite songs... I saw last year's list being shared here, so here's the new one! 🧵

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 14/12/2023

Every December for 5 years now I have made a massive end-of-the-year playlist and accompanying Twitter thread of the best songs to come out of Turkey. I think it's important to highlight the incredible creativity coming out of the country. You can read it here: en.velvele.net/2023/12/11/b...

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Reposted by Kenan Behzat Sharpe

Nick Ashdown @nickashdown.bsky.social · 08/12/2023

Check out the new Spotify playlist from the best commentator on Turkish music out there, @kenansharpe.bsky.social So far I'm loving the new Jakuzi single. open.spotify.com/playlist/4xc...

open.spotify.com

Best of Turkey 2023

Best of Turkey 2023 · Playlist · 55 songs · 843 likes

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Reposted by Kenan Behzat Sharpe

al-Mutaghatris @al-mutaghatris.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

Excited for this round table discussion on Higher Ed in Turkey in the latest issue of IJMES menasky

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 29/10/2023

Today's the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey. On the one side, you have crowds chanting Erdoğan's name & rejecting all the republic (should have) stood for. On the other, people sharing utterly apolitical messages with Atatürk's photo as if anything from the republic remains under the AKP

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 19/10/2023

The more I think about Turkey’s three days of “national mourning” the more frustrated I get. Let me get this right: do a big empty symbolic gesture for Palestine but make not one concrete action against Israel or to stop the massive flow of money to and from Turkey. But ban music and theater, yes…

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 19/10/2023

Çünkü müzik, tiyatro, sanat susturulunca savaş bitiyor…

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe @kenansharpe.bsky.social · 16/10/2023

For anyone who missed the debacle, I wrote about the cancellation of the annual Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and what it means for Turkey's film industry under increasingly absurd censorship. www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Tu...

balcanicaucaso.org

Turkey’s main film festival cancelled amid growing censorship

The prestigious Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival will not take place this year. The reason? The controversial decision to exclude the documentary "The Decree", which talks about a taboo topic: the ...

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