Maria Rita epic

Maria Rita Epik (born January 1, 1958 in Izmir ) is a Turkish musician of Italian descent who won the Turkish preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1979 .

Life

Epik first came into contact with music during her childhood in the choir of the Italian kindergarten in Izmir . After completing the Gazi Elementary School and the Turkish College Izmir , she began and completed a degree in business administration at the Aegean University in Izmir. From 1981 she studied music at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the USA .

She gained fame in Turkey through her victory in the Turkish preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1979. Together with the group “21. Peron ”(German“ 21st railroad track ”) she should represent Turkey with the song Seviyorum (German“ I love ”) at the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 in Israel . However, for political reasons, Turkey withdrew its participation at the last moment, so that Epik could not participate. The reason was economic pressure from the Arab countries due to the problems with Israel, which was to be the venue for the competition for the first time.

The group 21. Peron still exists today under the name "Smyrname" derived from the earlier name Izmirs ( Smyrna ). The head of the group is the German-born Turkish citizen and doctor Andreas Wildermann, as at the time of the 21st person. The other members of Smyrname are Ertan Elmalık and Arzu Akçay, the sister of doctor Gökhan Akçay, who in turn was one of the members of the former 21st Peron.

After the failed participation in Eurovision, Epik released her first album in the same year, which was titled Tanışma (German “ Get to know”). In 1986 she started working as a music teacher. At the offer of Oğuz Tatiş, she first managed a Yamaha music school. In 1990 she founded the Epik music school in Izmir, which she still runs today.

She dedicated her composition Peki Ben Niye Öldüm ("Why did I die", 1994) to the assassination victim Uğur Mumcu , and her composition Ave Maria (1999) to the late opera artist Zehra Yıldız.

Discography

• Tanışma ("Getting to Know", 1979)
• Yanımda yoksun ("You are not with me", 1990)
• Aradan uzun zaman geçti ("A lot of time has passed since then", 2005)

Web links

• Interview with Maria Rita Epik (Turkish)
• Article in the Akşam

swell

1. ↑ Turkey at Eurovision
2. ↑ Smyrname ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Erkan Sevinç: Mozaik ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.