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ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of her career in the 1980s, Seda Sayan has become one of the biggest popular culture icons in Turkey, sustaining a multifaceted career in entertainment that includes singing, acting, and, most influentially, television. Sayan’s career trajectory from wedding singer to the ‘Sultan of the Mornings’ illustrates how the Turkish celebrity industry works, and the evolution of her persona as a talk show host tracks the development of the genre format in Turkey. This article considers Seda Sayan’s daytime talk shows in order to better understand how she built her televisual empire among strong competition to become an exceptional force in Turkish television history. Her shows illustrate identity construction practices over time and have secured her place in Turkish entertainment. Taking this chapter in Sayan’s career as its case study, this article offers a brief introduction to the operations of celebrity culture and contemporary media industries in Turkey.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Seda Sayan Erol Köse’ye Canlı Yayında Küfür!, youtube.com. Available from: https://youtu.be/cR7Es4hDOSI [Accessed 28 April 2022].
2. Seda Sayan ın EROL KÖSE ye EFSANE ATARI Kinetic Typography, youtube.com. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA9Qn2dqJc0 [Accessed 28 April 2022].
3. Arabesque, specific to Turkey, is a kind of oriental folk music means ‘Arabic style Turkish music’. Its lyrics are usually emotional, and concern hopeless love, everyday troubles, hopelessness, and failure.
4. The article about Sayan being the most trusted celebrity from the beginning of Celebrity Trust Index: https://mediacat.com/seda-sayan-marketing-bir-hataydi/
5. In 1982, Milliyet claimed that the death of the famous manager Turgut Akyuz, who was killed in a clash in his bar, was due to Sayan Katilin, Akyüz’ü daha önce üç kez tehdit ettiği belirlendi Citation1983).
Her break-up with Mahsun Kırmızıgül, who was a famous arabesque singer and producer, kept the agenda for a long time Canlı yayında ağız dalaşı! Citation1997; ‘Dallas gibi! Citation1997; Mahsun yüreksizdir Citation1998).
Her past experiences as a child and her brother’s drug problems were the most frequently reported topics (‘‘Çocukken kaçak mal sattım’ Citation2009; ‘Kardeşim uyuşturucu batağında Citation2011).
6. For more detailed information about these penalties and how they affected Sayan’s stardom: Acar, Aysın Ece. Individual to societal figures: construction of celebrity identity in Turkish media. Diss. Bilkent University, 2020.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Aysın Ece Acar
Aysin Ece Acar is an independent scholar who completed her Master's Degree in Bilkent University, Media and Visual Studies Programme, in 2020.