Emre Aydin

Emre Aydin (born February 2, 1981), also stylized as emreaydin, is a Turkish rock singer-songwriter. The singer won the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 in the "Europe's Favourite Act" category. He is also the former lead singer for the Turkish rock band 6. Cadde. Emre Aydin was born in Isparta on 2 February 1981 as the first child of Saban and Nermin Aydin, who are both pharmacists. He has a younger brother named Yigit. In his early years, the family moved to Antalya. Emre began playing saz at an early age and later opted for guitar. He graduated from Antalya Anadolu Lisesi (high school) and then studied economics at Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir, upon his parents' wish. In a 2009 interview Emre admitted that he never attended a musical conservatory, because he did not want to have his musical experience transformed into school lessons and exam sessions, which he thought would make him lose interest in music. In 2016, the singer married his long time girlfriend, Eda Köksal, who is an interior architect. In 2002, while at Dokuz Eylül University, Emre saw the advertisement of a musical competition, Sing Your Song, aired by a domestic television channel, Show TV. The jury included well-known Turkish rock singer Koray Candemir. With a friend, Onur Ela, they decided to apply with Emre's own song, Dönersen (If you come back), and out of 1500 applicants, they won the competition. The song was selected by Universal Music into a selection album and their band, named 6. Cadde was offered a contract with Universal Music Turkey. Emre's album quickly became a smash hit in Turkey, having won several awards, including Blue Jean Magazine's awards for Best Song, Best Newcomer, Best Music Video and his producer, Haluk Kurosman was named Best Producer. Emre also won the prestigious Powertürk Music Award as Best Newcomer in 2007 and a year later was awarded for the Best song and Best duet at the same gala (see Awards section for a full list of awards). The album received mostly positive criticism, according to Burhan Ayeri columnist, "Emre Aydin's performance at 2 Renk was extraordinary. With a good manager, he will sweep away Tarkan. As Özcan Deniz said, 'this is the first time we see all songs of an album being top hits'." The singer is among the most frequently touring Turkish singers, in 2007 he gave 130 live concerts until August. Emre also completed his first European tour in 2008, composed of concerts in Bochum, Cologne and Rotterdam and performed in the Carling Academy, London on 11 May 2008. On November 6, 2008 he won the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 as Europe's Favourite Act. Upon this success, the singer decided to release an English single, planned for March 2009, which will be followed by his second Turkish album, ought to be released in May 2009. The singer's popularity is effectively shown at his official forum, which had 79,000 registered members as of October 2007 and more than 150,000 as of October 2009.