Bangır Bangır

In 2013, Gülşen released her eighth studio album Beni Durdursan mı?, which was downloaded 366,000 times on digital platforms and sold, 100,000 physical copies, becoming Turkey's best-selling album of the year.[1] She wrote all of the songs on the album by herself, and composed a number of them on her own and the others together with her boyfriend Ozan Çolakoğlu. Çolakoğlu also did the arrangement for the album's songs.[2] Two of those songs, "Yatcaz Kalkcaz Ordayım" and "Kardan Adam", ranked first on Türkçe Top 20 for weeks.[3][4] In February 2014, it was reported that Gülşen was working on a new studio album, and that it would be released in summer 2015. In the same month, Bugün wrote that due to writing and composing songs for her colleagues she had postponed the album's release date.[5] In April, Gülşen released the single "İltimas", featuring Murat Boz.[6] She also performed the song "Namus" on Ozan Doğulu's 2014 album 130 Bpm Moderato and the song "Emrin Olur" on the album Kayahan'ın En İyileri No.1 (2015).[7][8]

On 3 September 2014, she shared a photograph from Ozan Çolakoğlu's studio on her Twitter account, and announced that she had started recording the new album.[10] On 12 September she tweeted: "I'm greatly impatient to share my new songs with you as soon as possible. I'm now writing these words with so much excitement after just finishing another song."[11] In November, she appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan, and said that the album would be released in the first half of 2015.[9] To continue working on the album, she moved periodically to London, where she viewed as a source of inspiration. On 19 March, she announced that they were at the final stages of recording the album.[12]

Bangır Bangır, an "exciting, moving and cheerful" album in Gülşen's words, is a pop album that contains dance songs.[13][14] All of the songs were written and composed by Gülşen, except "Büyük Hatırın Var", which was composed together with Ozan Çolakoğlu. Çolakoğlu also served as the album's producer and arranged all of its songs. The recording was done at Kaya Müzik and Ozinga Productions studios in Istanbul and Matrix Studio Complex in London. The audio mastering was performed in New York at the Tom Coyne Sterling Sound.[15] In many major parts of the lyrics phrases of Turkish slang were used.[16][17]

The album contains 10 songs in total, and for its lead single, also titled "Bangır Bangır", words and phrases of Turkish slang were heavily used.[18] The song's chorus features spoon sounds together with the lyrics "Yavrum kaldır kollarını (Put up your arms babe) / Teslim ol etrafın sarılı (Give up, you're surrounded) / Sabret af çıksın sana (Be patient until you're forgiven) / Ben öptüreceğim bu evin yollarını (I'll make you kiss the paths to this home)".[14] It is followed by the Eurodance song "Bir Fırt Çek", which Yavuz Hakan Tok found similar to the song "Irgalamaz Beni" from her previous album.[17][19] The third song is titled "Kara Liste", and is followed by "Dan Dan", in which Gülşen threatens to kill herself if her lover does not fulfill her wishes.[15] The fifth song "Ellerinden Öper", which was compared to the song "Kardan Adam",[14][17] starts with a slow tempo and then turns into a vibrant song.[16] The song that follows it, "Yıkım Kararı", also has a slow tempo, and according to Naim Dilmener, with its lyrics it's the most striking part of the album.[16] The seventh song, "Büyük Hatırın Var", is a Eurodance song on which Çolakoğlu, is listed as the featuring artist.[19] In the fast-paced song "Parti Kur Oy Vereyim" Gülşen describes her fanaticism to the person she loves.[15] The two final songs are "En Sevdiğim Yanlışım" and "Can Yeleğim", both of which have slow tempos.[19]

Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda was a source of inspiration for Gülşen's photographs on the album's cover.

The album's cover was released on 24 April 2015 on Twitter.[20] The photographs were taken by Emre Ünal and Bahar Kongel Fransez served as the singer's stylist. She took inspiration from "exotic women" Carmen Miranda and Frida Kahlo for her work.[21] The drawings on the album's cover and photographs were prepared by Pelin Kırca.[15] Naim Dilmener found the album's cover strange, and wrote in his review: "To make it look like a painting, Gülşen has used the maximum number of colors possible, then pulled her belly out and looks straight toward us. They have confused the meaning of exotic with forest-like, and interpreted forest as monkey. There are two monkeys on the cover. They have probably decided that two is enough, cause three would have turned the meaning of the cover into something else; Gülşen's outfit combination is not suitable for that background either."[16] After releasing the photographs, Gülşen's appearance was also compared to Katy Perry's in the music video for "Roar". Sabah newspaper wrote in its review: "After taking some photos with monkeys in Cuba and realizing their similarity to Perry's appearance with monkeys in the jungle, the singer decided to publish other photographs in the press."[22] Some critics compared her overall appearance to English singer FKA Twigs. Actress Yasemin Allen wrote in her review for Sözcü: "I'm against using alternative images from different genres when making a pop album. It is considered a little bit scabby by different masses of people. I still stand behind what I have said before. The image of Turkish pop singers is not uniform."[23]

Bangır Bangır was released on 29 April 2015 by Doğan Music Company in CD format and on digital platforms,[24][25] and made available for digital download worldwide.[26] The album ranked first on D&R Best-Selling list and topped the iTunes digital sales list in Turkey.[27] By the end of 2015, the album sold 60,000 copies in CD format,[28] and the number rose to 80,000 in September.[29] After selling 100,000 copies by the end of the year, it became the second best-selling album in Turkey after Demet Akalın's Pırlanta, which sold only 5,000 more copies.[30] Due to its successful performance on sales charts, DMC awarded the album with a gold certification.[31] Bangır Bangır also received the Best Album award at the KKTC Cypaparazzi Awards[32] and the Haliç University Bests of the Year Awards.[33] It was also nominated for the same award at the Radio Boğaziçi Music Awards.[34] By the end of 2015, the album was streamed over 10 million times on TTNET Müzik, and the site chose it as the "Album of the Year". iTunes Store Türkiye also chose it as the "Best Pop Album" in Turkey.[35]

Bangır Bangır received mixed reviews from music critics. Hürriyet's Naim Dilmener gave the album two out of five, and stated that all of the songs and compositions were under the influence of Beni Durdursan mı?'s lead single "Yatcaz Kalkcaz Ordayım". He also stated that many of the songs "contain lyrics and phrases similar to the songs written by Sezen Aksu for Tarkan and composed by Çolakoğlu for him during the golden period of his career. They also contain abundant quotations and slogans." He also found Gülşen's vocals in "'Bir Fırt Çek' similar to Demet Akalın's vocal tone."[16] Writing for Hayat Müzik, Yavuz Hakan Tok also gave the album a negative review. Aside from the album's lead single, he found the other songs similar to their predecessors in Beni Durdursan mı?, believing that they bear the "same formulas, same mathematics, similar lyrics and melody". He wrote that the songs were not any different from the singer's previous works and "nothing has changed on Gülşen's front line."[17] Dikkat Müzik's Olcay Tanberken wrote that "When looking at the album as a whole, we don't see a 'new' Gülşen, and we even feel sad for her over-repetition."[36]

Writing for the website Dilimin Ayarı Yok, Cem Özsancak found the album weak compared to its predecessor Beni Durdursan mı?, and wrote "Bangır Bangır, shows that Gülşen's going slowly toward repeating herself or that she does not have anything new to offer."[14] Habertürk's Esin Övet found the album "beautiful in general" and pointed out to the "Sezen Aksu taste" in the songs. He also said that by releasing Bangır Bangır "the singer has taken herself one step forward as she had done with her other albums."[37][38] Milliyet's DJ Suat Kavukluoğlu stated that Gülşen can "analyze music's beating pulse and figure out the mathematics of making hit songs", and said that the album "contains songs that are written using Turkish slang, just like Sezen Aksu and Nazan Öncel's 'Şımarık', 'Seni Yerler' and 'Erkekler de Yanar', all of which were fiery songs."[18] Gzone's Mert Bell, gave the album a positive review and mentioned the singer's ability in songwriting as "the most important reason for her success." He also wrote that "In this album, Ozan Çolakoğlu's formulas on Gülşen's songs continue to appear with minor changes."[19]

All of the songs were written and composed by Gülşen. "Büyük Hatırın Var" was composed together with Ozan Çolakoğlu.

• Gülşen – singer-songwriter, supervisor
• Ozan Çolakoğlu – arranger, composer, producer, mixing, programming, keyboard, spoon
• Doğan Music Company – production
• Caner Güneysu – guitar
• Mehmet Akatay – percussion
• Alp Ersönmez – bass
• Ali Yılmaz – oud, cümbüş, bağlama
• Atınç Tombak – backing vocals (1, 4, 6, 9)
• Ercüment Vural – backing vocals (1, 5)
• Osman Çetin – backing vocals (3, 7, 8); recording
• Emre Kıral – mixing
• Emre Ünal – photography
• Bahar Kongel Fransez – style, creative director
• Pelin Kırca – drawings
• Suat Can Beldek – graphic design
• Serkan Aktük – hair
• Melis İlkkılıç – make-up
• Derya Şahin – nail art
• GD Ofset – printing

Credits adapted from Bangır Bangır's album booklet.[15]

• Bangır Bangır – Discogs