Beni Durdursan mı?

In 2009, Gülşen's seventh studio album Önsöz was released by Sony Music Entertainment and two of its songs, "Bi' An Gel" and "Ezberbozan", ranked first and third on Türkçe Top 20. In 2011 she signed a new contract with Doğan Music Company and continued her career with the singles "Yeni Biri" and "Sözde Ayrılık", both of which became number one hits.[1] In April 2011, it was reported that she had started working with composer and arranger Ozan Çolakoğlu, with whom she had previously worked on her previous album.[2] Alongside writing and preparing songs for her own new album, she also wrote and composed songs for her colleagues. She wrote and composed "Superman" for Hadise and "Bir Güzellik Yap" for Murat Dalkılıç, both of which became hits in Turkey.[3]

She had initially planned to release the album in May 2012, but later postponed the date and instead recorded the song "Seyre Dursun Aşk" for Çolakoğlu's album 01.[4] She later explained the reason for this decision: "I said in May, but it won't be May. The reason is that there are many more works that I still need to do. My dreams and my heart's voice tell me to do so. I wish to have everything perfect. All the works that I do, for myself and for my audience, is out of love. In September, all of my songs will be yours, I promise!"[5][6] However, the album was not released in September. During the preparation process, Gülşen stayed in Gündoğan, Bodrum, for a while. In an interview with Hürriyet, she talked about the album's content and said: "I really want to make an album with a specific concept. But my albums are richer and more varied. So there are electronics, house infrastructures; there are acoustic slow songs and also songs with medium tempo ..."[7] On 12 July 2012, it was reported that she was recording the album with the fastest pace possible.[8] The recording continued through 2012 and ended on 18 January 2013.[9]

Beni Durdursan mı? is a pop album that features elements of dance and arabesque music.[10] Except "Aşk Cinayet Sever", "Acısı Bile Bal" and "Seyre Dursun Aşk", all of the songs were written and composed by Gülşen. The three songs were composed together with the album's producer Ozan Çolakoğlu, who also did the arrangements for all of the songs on the album. All of the pieces were recorded at Kaya Müzik studio in Istanbul by Mehmet Can Mayakan and Osman Çetin. Mastering of the songs were done by Çolakoğlu, Emre Kıral and Levent Demirbaş.[11]

Together with the acoustic version of "Seyre Dursun Aşk", the album contains ten songs and unlike a number of her previous albums, it does not include any cover version.[12] The album's lead single, "Yatcaz Kalkcaz Ordayım", is a pop song featuring kemençe sounds. The chorus of the song was "used to describe the concept of time to children in an easy way" with the lyrics: "Yatcaz kalkcaz (We will sleep, wake up) / Yatcaz kalkcaz (Sleep, wake up) / Yatcaz kalkcaz (Sleep, wake up) / Hop ordayım (Whoop, I will be there) / Dağlar, bayırlar, o uzun yollar (The mountains, the slopes, long roads) / Hepsi hikâye, firardayım (All are nonsense, I'm on the run)".[10] The second song "Kardan Adam" has a mild tempo and according to Yavuz Hakan Tok its main words use "the 'Andalusian arabesque' formula that the singer has similarly used before."[10] "Saklandım İzlerinde" also has a mild tempo and elements of arabesque-pop are used in it. It is followed by "Kendine Müslüman", a song with a slow rhythm that also contains arabesque elements.[10] The fifth song "Yalanlar Çok Güzel" is a slow-paced song, followed by the dance-pop hit "Irgalamaz Beni", the lyrics of which were used to choose the album's title. It was also compared to some of Yıldız Tilbe's songs in terms of vocal techniques.[10][13] The seventh song "Aşk Cinayet İster" also has a slow tempo, while the eighth song "Acısı Bile Bal" is a vibrant song. The final song "Ne Düşünürsen O Olur"[12] was praised by critics for its meaningful lyrics.[10][14]

Beni Durdursan mı?'s name and cover were released on 14 February 2013 by Gülşen on her Twitter account.[15] For the cover she dyed her hair in different shades of brown. The cover and all the album photographs were taken by Emre Ünal. Zeynep Tosun acted as her costume and image consultant, while Mahizer Aytaş served as her stylist.[11]

After spending $300,000 during the preparation process which lasted for three years,[16][17] the album was released on 20 February 2013 by Doğan Music Company in CD format inside Turkey[18] and two days later it was made available for digital download worldwide.[19][20] It was Gülşen's first album released by this production company. On the first week of its release, it ranked first on Turkey's D&R Best-Selling list and remained so for weeks.[21][22] According to MÜ-YAP, by the end of the year, it sold 100,000 physical copies and was downloaded 366,646 times on digital platforms, becoming the best-selling album of 2013 in Turkey.[23] Due to its sales records, the album received a gold certification from its production company DMC.[24] In 2014, Beni Durdursan mı? received the Best Album by a Female Artist award at the Yeditepe University Dilek Awards[25] and was also awarded the Best Album award at the 4th Pal FM Music Awards and 20th MGD Golden Objective Awards.[26][27] In the same year, she received five awards at the 2nd Turkey Music Awards, becoming the artist with the most wins at the ceremony; the album and its lead single were given the Album of the Year and the Song of the Year awards and Gülşen herself received the Best Female Artist, Best Songwriter and Best Composer awards.[28]

Beni Durdursan mı? received mixed reviews from music critics. While some did not find the album to be influential and gave it negative reviews, some appreciated the singer's identity as a songwriter and composer. Hürriyet's Sadi Tirak wrote that after listening to the album's lead single, he had lost his hopes for this album, and said: "It neither had a catchy melody nor a meaningful chorus. In terms of instrumental richness and sound, there is an improvement, but they are only detachments that don't come together to make a 'song'."[29] Onur Baştürk from the same newspaper, pointed out Gülşen's claim of "making high-quality hit songs" and wrote that the track listing begins with disco songs and later turns into arabesque, indicating the message in the album was "choose what you like, or what suits you the best."[13] Radioman Michael Kuyucu congratulated Gülşen on writing and composing the songs and asked for an album similar to Of... Of... (2004) in terms of style. He also wrote: "Gülşen and her team still survived the pitfalls of the disastrous pop music world. This is a big plus for her."[14]

Best FM's radiowoman Mine Ayman wrote in her review for Söz Müzik that the album did not make her as excited as she wished and said that choosing "Kardan Adam" as the album's lead single would have increased the effectiveness of its promotion.[30] Writing for Hayat Müzik, Yavuz Hakan Tok gave the album a mixed review and wrote: "For a moment it takes the form of arabesque-alaturka, and the other moment it turns to dance and party songs. [...] This is an album where you will enjoy the high infrastructure and technical perfection that are all created by Ozan Çolakoğlu and you will memorize your candidate 'hit' songs and play them for a long time." He also criticized Gülşen for not experimenting with new songs and compositions, unlike Sezen Aksu whom Gülşen had claimed that she was inspired by.[10] Writing for Dilimin Ayarı Yok, Cem Özsancak praised the singer's collaboration with Çolakoğlu, liked the album and gave it a positive review: "As a sequel to Önsöz, Gülşen gives us an album that is full of stories told through the songs."[12] In addition, various music critics stated in their subsequent reviews that Beni Durdursan mı? (especially "Yatcaz Kalkcaz Ordayım") greatly influenced the singer's next studio album, Bangır Bangır, which was released in 2015.[31]

All of the songs were written and composed by Gülşen. "Aşk Cinayet Sever", "Acısı Bile Bal" and "Seyre Dursun Aşk" were composed together with Ozan Çolakoğlu.

Credits adapted from Beni Durdursan mı?'s album booklet.[11]

• Beni Durdursan mı? at Discogs