Born on a cotton plantation in South Carolina on January 17, 1927, Eartha Kitts’ career began when she was 16 in New York City as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company. She traveled to cultural capitals such as Paris, and later Istanbul, performing a number of cabaret numbers. Somewhere around 1951, Kitt arrived in Istanbul, a post-World War II environment that was beginning to shape and be shaped by Cold War politics and modernization efforts by both the U.S. and Turkey. (Sidenote: Begüm Adalet has a great book on modernization theory in cold war Turkey.) Even more so, this period was a formative period for jazz and blues in Turkey. Only a few years prior in October 1947, had Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün and Herb Abramson founded Atlantic Records. The Ertegün brothers were influential in D.C.'s jazz scene. The Şantöz (chanteuse) spent a month performing in Istanbul’s nightclubs, returning back to the U.S. with a familiar song in her heart: Üsküdara Giderken. She recorded this song for RCA Records, which sailed to the top of American charts and sold 120K copies! Kitt would go on to have a wonderful, multi-talented career, known for her distinctive singing style and voice. Some might know her as Catwoman, some might know her as Yzma from the Emperor's New Groove, but for many she’ll remain the one who went to Uskudar.