Anne-Marie duets with Kurdish fan on Istanbul stage

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – British singer and songwriter Anne-Marie Rose Nicholson surprised her fans in Turkey’s Istanbul during a concert Saturday night when she called on stage a Kurdish fan to sing along her 2016 hit “Rockabye.”

Mehmet Ali Sulan, a member of a local music band from the town of Cizre in the Sirnak Province, accompanied Anne-Marie with his lyrics in Kurdish while an audience of hundreds cheered them.

“The result of [my] perseverance. Thank you all who have been supporting me,” Sulan broke the news of his Istanbul duet, publishing a backstage picture he took with Anne-Marie on his Facebook page.

Sulan got unexpected fame back in March when a video of him singing in Kurdish with Anne-Marie’s “Rockabye” on an online application that allows users to duet with renowned singers went viral.

“I LOVE this!!!,” tweeted Anne-Marie, quoting a Turkish news story about Sulan’s version of her song.

Since then, the two have apparently been in touch.

On his Twitter, Sulan frequently invited Anne-Marie to his hometown of Cizre, battered in last year’s urban warfare between local Kurdish fighters seeking autonomy and the Turkish army.

However, on Saturday, he was the one who accepted an invitation, albeit to the cosmopolitan Istanbul.

Sulan shared the screenshot of an Instagram message by Anne-Marie where she asked him to accompany her during the Istanbul concert.

“It was a dream. I made it! I hope this night never ends,” he tweeted with a picture of him on stage with Anne-Marie.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany