'Dutch Norah Jones' isn't giving up her day job - yet

The music industry is beckoning the talented 19-year-old Turkish-Dutch singer Karsu Dönmez, but for now she is still performing - and waitressing - in her parents' restaurant in Amsterdam.

From the street she was just a shock of dark curly hair behind a piano in the middle of a long and narrow restaurant called Kilim. It was only up close that Karsu Dönmez looked her 19 years.

Like every weekend, the young jazz talent who has been called the 'Dutch answer to Norah Jones', was performing in her parents' restaurant in the Amsterdam neighbourhood De Pijp, where she is also a waitress.

"Customers sometimes still ask me: 'Who was the girl behind the piano?'", she said."They don't expect the waitress to be playing and singing too."

A familiar place

The walls of the restaurant were covered with framed articles about Dönmez and posters announcing her concerts. Last year Dönmez performed at several jazz festivals, at the Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam and at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

But Dönmez still enjoys performing at her parents' restaurant. "I've been playing here since I was fifteen," she said. "It's a familiar place, and it's nice to be so close to the people."

She likes the Norah Jones comparison because she's a huge fan of Jones. And the similarities are obvious: Dönmez has the same quiet touch combined with a jazzy sound. But there are differences too: Dönmez' music is more pop-influenced, and her voice is stronger and more emotional.

As soon as Dönmez started singing it was clear why some customers didn't make the connection between the waitress and the singer. She has a warm, grown-up voice that seems to come from deep inside and can sound quite raw when she hits the low notes.

She switched easily between her own songs in English and traditional folk songs from Azerbeidjan, which are very popular in Turkey. "It is the music I grew up with," she said. "I try to put as much emotion in my own songs as they do there."

Carnegie Hall

Dönmez knew she was going to make music her profession when she performed at Carnegie Hall for the second time last April in front of almost three-thousand people. She had been invited by the Dutch-American Community Trust, which supports emerging talent. As soon as the American, Dutch and Turkish media noticed her, Dönmez' life changed for good.

"I was running from interview to interview on top of rehearsing. It was a chaotic week," she said. At the end of it she performed a Gerschwin medley accompanied by the 120-members strong orchestra The New York Pops.

The past few months Dönmez has been busy negotiating with record companies who have shown an interest in her for a while. Until now her parents have taken care of everything. When she does sign a contract they will finally be able to delegate those tasks to a professional manager. But Dönmez is mostly conducting the negotiations herself.

Her parents are Turkish immigrants from the Hatay region on the Syrian border. They felt it was important to encourage the personal development of their two daughters. Karsu Dönmez started music lessons when she was five, but is wasn't until she was seven that she firmly decided she wanted to play the piano. Her parents saw she was serious and bought her one. Later, when people at school started to comment on her lovely voice, she took singing classes as well.

From pop to jazz

Her first breakthrough came when a representative of the US embassy in the Netherlands noticed her at a dance gala, and offered her a 2.5-week scholarship. She was just sixteen when she flew to New York, where she met a lot of peers with a similar talent for music. "It was amazing. Every morning there would be a lecture by somebody famous, like Bill Clinton. In the afternoons we would sing for six hours straight."

Then the Community Trust Foundation selected her for a concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and she became one of six people selected to perform at Carnegie Hall. "Two days before I left I looked up Carnegie Hall on the internet. When I saw how impressive the concert hall was I couldn't believe it. I thought: 'I can't do this.'"

It was also in New York that Dönmez discovered jazz. "With pop music, as soon as I learned the notes and was able to play the song I wouldn't be so impressed anymore. But jazz music can be so cleverly put together."

'Bring it on'

Back in Amsterdam the Kilim restaurant was starting to fill up. Many of the customers were regulars and friends of the family. They were welcomed with enthusiasm and led to tables where Karsu's 15-year-old sister Cansu took their orders. Around eight o'clock a hush fell over the restaurant as Dönmez took her place behind the piano.

"Love me like a wonderwall, you promised to give me all”, she sang on Mistress. The song is about a girl who has an affair with a married man - not your typical 19-year-old stuff. How does she write her lyrics? Dönmez: "Whenever I hear a nice sentence I write it down and make up a story around it. It's not like this has really happened to me."

Moments after she left the piano Dönmez was already helping a customer who had knocked over his drink. It was hard to imagine the same girl negotiating with the people at Universal and Sony. But many of her fans already realise that they won't be able to enjoy her music in such close proximity much longer.

Dönmez is eager for what's coming next. "Of course I have to set priorities for myself," she said, "but for now I'm saying: bring it on. I want the best record deal, a good management and then: an album."