Joan Franka

Joan Franka
Joan Franka (2012)
Background information
Birth name	Ayten Kalan
Born	(1990-04-02) 2 April 1990 (age 31)
Origin	Dutch / Turkish
Genres	Pop, folk
Occupation(s)	Singer
Years active	2010–present

Joan Franka (born 2 April 1990 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch singer with the birthname of Joany Franka Johanna Ayten Hazebroek. Her late father was Turkish, while her mother is Dutch. She represented the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with You and Me.^[1][2] She became well known in the Netherlands through her participation in the first series of The Voice of Holland, a talent show.

Music career[]

2010-2011: The Voice of Holland[]

In September 2010, Joan Franka entered the talent show, The Voice of Holland in its inaugural 2010-2011 season where she auditioned with Nickelback's "How You Remind Me". Two of four judges hit their "I Want You" buttons, judges Roel van Velzen and Jeroen van der Boom. She chose to be on van Velzen's team.

In the Battle round, she was put against Yvette de Bie. They both sang "One of Us" and she was kept to move to the live shows with de Bie being eliminated. In first live show, she sang 's "Foolish Games" and in third live show Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis" and in fifth live show Beverley Craven's "Promise Me" when she was eliminated.

Two of the songs she sang during the competition charted as minor hits in the Dutch Singles Chart. "Foolish Games" reached #42 and "Promise Me" #45 based on downloads.

2012-present: Eurovision Song Contest[]

On 26 February 2012 Joan battled against her former fellow The Voice of Holland contestant Raffaëla Paton on the first round of Nationaal Songfestival 2012 and eventually advanced to the final round where she was eventually chosen to represent the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Despite coming last with the jury vote of 11 she led the televotes with 26.1 points which resulted in her victory. Her song entry for the contest, "You and Me", was released in the Netherlands on 27 February 2012 as a Music download and also on a limited CD-single.

Franka performed at the second semi-final in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest and failed to reach the final, making it the 8th straight year the Netherlands had failed to make the Eurovision final.

Discography[]

Singles[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joan Franka.

• Official website ^{[dead link]}