Serhat (singer)
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Ahmet Serhat Hacıpaşalıoğlu (born 24 October 1964), known as Serhat, is a Turkish singer, songwriter, producer and television presenter. Born and raised in
Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, Serhat started his production career by establishing his own company in 1994, End Productions. In the same year, he also started to produce and host a quiz show on TRT called '' Riziko!'' (Turkish version of the American quiz show ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...
''). In 1997, with his first single, "Rüya-Ben Bir Daha", his musical career began. Beside his other hosting and producing works, he continued his musical career and released "Total Disguise" (duet with Viktor Lazlo) in 2004, "Chocolate Flavour" in 2005, "I Was So Lonely", "No No Never (Moscow-Istanbul)" and "Ya + Ty" ( Russian version of "Total Disguise", all three songs were duets with Tamara Gverdtsiteli) in 2008 and "Je m'adore" in 2014. He represented
San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...
in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
singing "I Didn't Know" on 10 May 2016 in the first semi final of Eurovision, but failed to qualify for the final. In 2017, the
disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...
version of the song featuring Martha Wash was released. This version reached number 25 on the
Dance Club Songs The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...
chart, making Serhat the first Turkish singer to appear on the chart. In 2018, a new version of "Total Disguise" featuring Elena Paparizou was released. He represented
San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...
for the second time in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
with " Say Na Na Na". He performed in the first semi final and qualified for the final, placing 8th. In the final, he placed 19th, the best result in Sammarinese Eurovision Song Contest history. A German-language version of the song "Sing Na Na Na" was released in 2019, and the Spanish-language version "Di Na Na Na" in 2020.


Early years and education

Serhat was born on 24 October 1964 in
Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
. His father, İsmail Hakkı, was a naval officer who was born in
Trabzon Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. The city was founded in 756 BC as "Trapezous" by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid E ...
where his mother was born, too. He attended a primary school in İcadiye,
Üsküdar Üsküdar () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 35 km2, and its population is 524,452 (2022). It is a large and densely populated district on the Anatolian (Asian) shore of the Bosphorus. It is border ...
, and then
Deutsche Schule Istanbul Deutsche Schule Istanbul (, shortened as DSI), with formal Turkish language, Turkish name Özel Alman Lisesi () or İstanbul Alman Lisesi () or simply Alman Lisesi () is a Private school, private international high school in the Beyoğlu district o ...
(German High School) in BeyoÄŸlu, Istanbul. He graduated from Faculty of Dentistry of
Istanbul University Istanbul University, also known as University of Istanbul (), is a Public university, public research university located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Mehmed II on May 30, 1453, a day after Fall of Constantinople, the conquest of Constantinop ...
in 1988. In 1990, he completed two months of compulsory
military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...
in Burdur.


Career


Television and events

In 1994, Serhat established his own production company, End Productions. After an agreement with TRT, the company became the producer of the quiz show named '' Riziko!'', Turkish version of the American quiz show ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...
''. Serhat was also the host of the show that started to air on 3 October 1994. In 1995, he received two Golden Butterfly (Turkish: Altın Kelebek) awards, one for "Best Male Host of the Year" and one for "Best Quiz Show of the Year" for ''Riziko!''. In 1996 he again received the award for "Best Quiz Show of the Year". The show lasted over 430 episodes and ended at the end of 1996. A game show named ''Hedef 4'' (Turkish version of '' Connect Four'') that started to air on TRT 1 in 1996, was produced by End Productions. In 1997, he started to produce the game show ''Altına Hücum'' (Turkish version of '' Midas Touch'') for Kanal 6 which ended after 72 episodes in the same year. In 1998, ''Riziko!'' returned to television and was aired on Kanal 7 hosted by Serhat. In the same year, ''Hedef 4'' started to air on Kanal 7, too and ended the following year. ''Riziko!'' ended in 1999 and in the same year, Serhat started to host a talk entertainment on Kanal 7 named ''Serhat'la Rizikosuz'' which ended after six episodes. After a few months, ''Riziko!'' returned to Kanal 7 in 2000 and was continued 65 episodes. In September 2005, Serhat co-hosted
Show TV Show TV is a Turkish free-to-air national television channel, established in 1991 by Erol Aksoy, Dinç Bilgin, Haldun Simavi and Erol Simavi, owned by the Can Holding. History The channel replaces Cine5's now-defunct frequencies, and it was ...
's ''Kalimerhaba'' with Katerina Moutsatsou, a TV show which was produced by End Productions. At the end of 2009, Serhat created a dance orchestra "Caprice the Show" with 18 musicians and made numerous performances in the following years. With his company, he also organizes some annual events such as the High School Music Contest (''Liselerarası Müzik Yarışması'', 1998–present), the Megahit-International Mediterranean Song Contest (''Megahit-Uluslararası Akdeniz Şarkı Yarışması'', 2002–2004) and the Dance Marathon (''Dans Maratonu'', dance competition between high schools and universities separately, 2009–present).


Production credits


Musical career

He started his musical career 1997, with a single of two songs "Rüya" and "Ben Bir Daha". In 2004, he released his second single named "Total Disguise" with the French singer Viktor Lazlo in duet. Lyrics and music of the song were written by Olcayto Ahmet Tuğsuz and the song was performed both in English and French. The single also contained several remix versions of the song. In 2005, he recorded "Chocolate Flavour" and the song was released with "Total Disguise" as a single in
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
. In 2008, he collaborated with Russian/Georgian singer Tamara Gverdtsiteli and they recorded "I Was So Lonely", "No No Never (Moscow-Istanbul)" and "Ya + Ti" ( Russian version of "Total Disguise"). These songs were released as a single and also appeared in Gverdtsiteli's album ''Vozdushiy Potsyelui'' (2008). In 2014, Serhat started to work in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and Germany. He released his fifth single, a French song called "Je m'adore" with the music video directed by Thierry Vergnes shot in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. It reached number 1 for 5 weeks in a row on Deutsche DJ Black/Pop Charts, number 1 on Black 30, number 2 on British Dance Charts, number 8 on French Dance Charts and number 9 on Swiss Dance Charts. On 12 January 2016, San Marino RTV announced that Serhat would represent
San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...
in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
. On 9 March 2016, the song that he performed in the contest, " I Didn't Know" was released. He performed in the first semi-final on 10 May and failed to qualify to final, ending in 12th place. On 2 November 2017, the
disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...
version of "I Didn't Know" featuring Martha Wash, re-arranged by Swedish musician Johan Bejerholm, was released as a single, along with a new music video. The song entered the American
Dance Club Songs The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...
chart at number 47 and peaked at number 25 in its fourth week on the chart. This made Serhat the first ever Turkish singer to appear on the chart. A new version of "Total Disguise" featuring Elena Paparizou was released on 22 June 2018 by CAP-Sounds. The music video of the single was released on 14 September. On 21 January 2019, San Marino RTV announced that he would again represent
San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...
in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv. On the same day, Serhat announced that he had been working on his first studio album, which was released in April 2019. The song that he performed in the contest, " Say Na Na Na", was released with an accompanying music video on 7 March. He performed in the first semi final on 14 May 2019 and qualified for the final, where he finished 19th, setting the record for the highest placing San Marinese song in Eurovision history. This was only the second time San Marino had qualified for a Eurovision final, and the first time since 2014. On 19 July 2019, a German cover version of "Say Na Na Na" titled "Sing Na Na Na" was released by Serhat. It was accompanied by a remade version of the music video of "Say Na Na Na" released the same day. The Spanish cover version of the song, "Di Na Na Na" was released on 16 October 2020. The lyrics were translated to Spanish by Adolfo Caiman and the animated music video was created by Josue Gil Aleman.


Other works

Since 2010, Serhat is the president of Alumni Association of Istanbul German High School (, ) and since 2013 a board member of Istanbul German High School Management Association (, ).


Discography


Albums


Singles


Awards and honours

* 1998: Fair Play Grand Prize by National Olympic Committee of Turkey * 2003: FIDOF (International Federation of Festival Organizations) Annual Golden Transitional Media Ring of Friendship * 2004: Golden Key of the City of
Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...


References


External links

*
Official website of End Productions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Serhat Living people 1964 births Singers from Istanbul Turkish male singers Turkish television producers Turkish television presenters Turkish pop singers Turkish dance musicians Latin music musicians Disco musicians English-language singers from Turkey Spanish-language singers of Turkey Turkish composers 20th-century Turkish songwriters 20th-century Turkish male singers Istanbul University alumni Deutsche Schule Istanbul alumni Television people from Istanbul 21st-century Turkish songwriters Eurovision Song Contest entrants