He’s the velvet-voiced Turkish crooner who has twice represented San Marino at Eurovision. Now Serhat Hacıpaşalıoğlu has won the Pantene Golden Butterfly Award, honouring the international achievements of his music career.
Serhat shared the good news with his fans, writing “I’m very happy to get “Pantene Golden Butterfly-Altin Kelebek”, the most prestigious media award of Turkey, for my international music career. This is my 4th Golden Butterfly in 25 years. Hope I don’t need to wait long for a new one.”
I’m very happy to get ‘’Pantene Golden Butterfly-Altin Kelebek’’, the most prestigous media award of Turkey, for my international music career. This is my 4th Golden Butterfly in 25 years. Hope I don’t need to wait long for a new one.? pic.twitter.com/2FTBKnVb3F
— Serhat Hac?pa?al?o?lu (@serhathpo) July 5, 2020
Serhat wasn’t the only past Eurovision star to pick up a trophy. Hadise, who represented Turkey at Eurovision 2009, received the award for Best Female Singer. In an Instagram post, the Belgian-born Turkish star thanked those who had given her the award: “Thank you to everyone who voted”.
This is Hadise’s fifth Golden Butterfly award. She picked up the Best New Female Artist award in 2005. Following her performance at Eurovision in 2009, Hadise received the Pop Artist of the Year award as well as the Song of the Year award for her Eurovision entry “Düm Tek Tek”. Later, the Turkish star was given the Golden Butterfly Best Music Video award in 2018 for “Farkımız Var”.
The Pantene Golden Butterfly Awards honour the best in Turkish film and music every year and have been known as the “Turkish Oscars”. The awards are sponsored by the international hair-care brand Pantene.
Serhat’s quarter-century of achievements
Serhat was previously honoured in the 1990s with Golden Butterfly Awards for his work on Riziko! — the Turkish version of the hit quiz show Jeopardy!. Serhat was the show host and producer, which earned him Best Male Host of the Year in 1995 and Best Quiz Show of the Year in 1995 and 1996.
Twenty-five years on, he’s living his best life as an international music artist and has been honoured for his successes.
As well as representing San Marino twice at the Eurovision Song Contest — and bringing some Turkish style to the Eurovision stage — Serhat also has worked with a number of acclaimed artists from around the world.
He has sung with divas such as Viktor Lazlo (France/Belgium), Tamara Gverdtsiteli (Georgia), Martha Wash (United States) and Helena Paparizou (Sweden/Greece).
In addition, Serhat and Martha Wash’s remix of “I Didn’t Know” reached No.25 on the American Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. The countdown isn’t based on sales, but it was a sign that “I Didn’t Know” was being played in the nightclubs and discotheques of the United States.
Most recently, Serhat returned to Eurovision 2019 with the uplifting anthem “Say Na Na Na”. The song was a fan favourite and Serhat took it to the Eurovision grand final — only the second time San Marino has managed this. “Say Na Na Na” placed 19th in the grand final, San Marino’s best ever Eurovision result.
We congratulate Serhat and Hadise on their Golden Butterfly wins and look forward to more music!
What do you think? What international music project should Serhat do next? Who should he collaborate with? Tell us your thoughts below!
That award ceremony is older than Pantene btw
Important news! Ben Dolic has not been selected for Germany 2021 :/
And there will be an internal selection in its stead, which Ben Dolic and Borislav Milanov intend on submitting an entry to.
Hope Ben wins.
It’s so sad
Sadly, Ben Dolic will not be internally selected for Germany in 2021 🙁
No one deserves it more! Way to go!
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but how can someone who cites Nocturne as their all-time favourite Eurovision song worship Serhat so much? 🙂
Because Eurovision is never just about one kind of music, and that’s why I love it so much! I’m just as capable of enjoying a moody, artsy song like “Nocturne” or “Amar pelos dois” as I am a big, goofy song like “Say Na Na Na” or “Shir Habatlanim.” People seem to think that you can only like one or the other, but I feel like you’ll never get the full Eurovision experience if you don’t open yourself to all the many aspects of the contest. Also, I’ve talked in previous posts about “Say Na Na Na” and its significance… Read more »
Sure, it’s about variety. I love all sorts of songs too. It’s also about quality. I know you value the underdog spirit of San Marino, and I don’t mean to rain on that…it’s just, like you said in another comments section about Demi Lovato representing Iceland – it wouldn’t be of any national pride, and a hollow victory.
Not necessarily. Serhat represents the spirit of San Marino perfectly, even if he isn’t a local. He didn’t give up. Why would he take all that time to fly out to San Marino itself and give Eurovision a second chance on their behalf when he didn’t have nearly that much to gain from a second go-round besides exposure? Because San Marino is the country of bouncing back. They represent positivity and looking to the future with a strong spirit and good humor (I promise you the Sammarinese tourism board isn’t paying me to say this). “Say Na Na Na” epitomized… Read more »
Wrote a whole thing that’s being moderated for whatever reason. Long and short of it is that he was willing to live up to the spirit of bouncing back from failure, took the time to visit and get to know San Marino, and genuinely appreciates Eurovision and who he’s representing there.
I’ll accept all that, but still think he was merely using San Marino to fulfill his own personal dream. He never expressed any interest in them in his first 50 years. If he really appreciated who he was representing, maybe he could’ve inserted some chants in Italian rather than Turkish.
The real hero of San Marinese Eurovision history is Valentina Monetta.
Well, people take time to figure out their dream! I can’t remember if he approached them or the other way around, but someone at some point decided that Serhat and San Marino go together, and that’s good enough for me. (And Serhat reps for dual nationality. He’s proud of showing off his home country but there was never a moment I doubted his fondness for his adopted homeland).
But yeah, all in all, Valentina represents them even better.
Adopted homeland might be stretching it a bit…dual nationality too…I thought he’d spent a week there total. Still, I may have been a little too harsh on him. He’s said he’s finished with the contest, so I guess I should wish him well and move on.
What is wrong with Serhat? SayNaNANa is wonderful.
Serhat seems like a lovely man. Decent. As for his musical talents, well, that’s another story. As Arisa illustrated recently, whoever can stump up €300,000 gets to represent San Marino. He bought his participation. I don’t really approve of privatizing Eurovision slots.
Some huge bills must have been racked up in the Valentina years! In her case the end (mostly!) justified the means.
Yeah, but luckily for her, it was Ralph Siegel who paid up!
That’s true. And as you may recall the Bosnia Herzegovina “Eurovision slot” could not be bought, good for them.
netta is performing live on grindr later today!!
Let the man have his moment!