Music of Turkey
General topics
Byzantine music Military bands Whirling Dervishes Arabesque music Turkish music style
Genres
Folk Rock Pop Classical Alternative Hip hop Jazz Military
Specific forms
Ethnic music	Armenian Azeri Bosnian Greek Jewish Kurdish Zaza Other immigrants and minorities
Tenth year March Ottoman marches
Media and performance
Music awards	Kral MV MÜ-YAP MGD
Music charts	Billboard charts
Music festivals	Music festivals International Music Festival International Jazz Festival Izmir European Jazz Festival Aspendos festival
Music media	Rolling Stone (Türkiye) MTV (Türkiye)
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	Independence March
Regional music
Cypriot Turkish music

The music of Turkey includes diverse elements ranging from Central Asian folk music and has many copies and references of Byzantine music, Greek music, Ottoman music, Persian music, Balkan music, as well as more modern European and American popular music influences. Turkey is a country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and is a crossroad of cultures from across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus and South and Central Asia.

The roots of traditional music in Turkey spans across centuries to a time when the Seljuk Turks colonized Anatolia and Persia in the 11th century and contains elements of both Turkic and pre-Turkic influences. Much of its modern popular music can trace its roots to the emergence in the early 1930s drive for Westernization.^[1]

With the assimilation of immigrants from various regions the diversity of musical genres and musical instrumentation also expanded. Turkey has also seen documented folk music and recorded popular music produced in the ethnic styles of Greek, Armenian, Music of Albania, Polish, Azeri and Jewish communities, among others.^[2] Many Turkish cities and towns have vibrant local music scenes which, in turn, support a number of regional musical styles. Despite this however, western-style pop music lost popularity to arabesque in the late 70s and 80s, with even its greatest proponents Ajda Pekkan and Sezen Aksu falling in status. It became popular again by the beginning of the 1990s, as a result of an opening economy and society. With the support of Aksu, the resurging popularity of pop music gave rise to several international Turkish pop stars such as Tarkan and Sertab Erener. The late 1990s also saw an emergence of underground music producing alternative Turkish rock, electronica, hip-hop, rap and dance music in opposition to the mainstream corporate pop and arabesque genres, which many believe have become too commercial.^[3]

Classical music[link]

Ottoman court music has a large and varied system of modes or scales known as makams, and other rules of composition. A number of notation systems were used for transcribing classical music, the most dominant being the Hamparsum notation in use until the gradual introduction of western notation. Turkish classical music is taught in conservatories and social clubs, the most respected of which is Istanbul's Üsküdar Musiki Cemiyeti.

A specific sequence of classical Turkish musical forms become a fasıl, a suite an instrumental prelude (peṣrev), an instrumental postlude (saz semaisi), and in between, the main section of vocal compositions which begins with and is punctuated by instrumental improvisations taksim.^[4] A full fasıl concert would include four different instrumental forms and three vocal forms, including a light classical song, şarkı. A strictly classical fasıl remains is the same makam throughout, from the introductory taksim and usually ending in a dance tune or oyun havası.^[5] However shorter şarkı compositions, precursors to modern day songs, are a part of this tradition, many of them extremely old, dating back to the 14th century; many are newer, with late 19th century songwriter Haci Arif Bey being especially popular.

Composers and Performers

Other famous proponents of this genre include Sufi Dede Efendi, Prince Cantemir, Baba Hamparsum, Kemani Tatyos Efendi, Sultan Selim III and Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. The most popular modern Turkish classical singer is Münir Nurettin Selçuk, who was the first to establish a lead singer position. Other performers include Bülent Ersoy, Zeki Müren, Müzeyyen Senar and Zekai Tunca.

Musical instruments[link]

Traditional instruments in Turkish classical music today include tanbur long-necked plucked lute, ney end-blown flute, kemençe bowed fiddle, oud plucked short-necked unfretted lute, kanun plucked zither, violin, and in Mevlevi music, kudüm drum.

Ottoman harem music: belly dancing[link]

A Preziosi depiction of a Turkish harem

From the makams of the royal courts to the melodies of the royal harems, a type of dance music emerged that was different from the oyun havası of fasıl music. In the Ottoman Empire, the harem was that part of a house set apart for the women of the family. It was a place in which non-family males were not allowed. Eunuchs guarded the sultan's harems, which were quite large, including several hundred women who were wives and concubines. There, female dancers and musicians entertained the women living in the harem. Belly dance was performed by women for women. This female dancer, known as a rakkase, hardly ever appeared in public.^[6]

This type of harem music was taken out of the sultan's private living quarters and to the public by male street entertainers and hired dancers of the Ottoman Empire, the male rakkas. These dancers performed publicly for wedding celebrations, feasts, festivals, and in the presence of the sultans.^[6]

Modern oriental dance in Turkey is derived from this tradition of the Ottoman rakkas. Some mistakenly believe that Turkish oriental dancing is known as Çiftetelli due to the fact that this style of music has been incorporated into oriental dancing by Greeks, illustrated by the fact that the Greek belly dance is sometimes mistakenly called Tsifteteli. However, Çiftetelli is now a form of folk music, with names of songs that describe their local origins, whereas rakkas, as the name suggests, is possibly of a more mideastern origin.^[6] Dancers are also known for their adept use of finger cymbals as instruments, also known as zils.

Romani influences[link]

Roma are known throughout Turkey for their musicianship. Their urban music brought echoes of classical Turkish music to the public via the meyhane or taverna. This type of fasıl music (a style, not to be confused with the fasıl form of classical Turkish music) with food and alcoholic beverages is often associated with the underclass of Turkish society, though it also can be found in more respectable establishments in modern times.^[1]

Roma have also influenced the fasıl itself. Played in music halls, the dance music (oyun havası) required at the end of each fasıl has been incorporated with Ottoman rakkas or belly dancing motifs. The rhythmic ostinato accompanying the instrumental improvisation (ritimli taksim) for the bellydance parallels that of the classical gazel, a vocal improvisation in free rhythm with rhythmic accompaniment. Popular musical instruments in this kind of fasıl are the clarinet, violin, kanun, and darbuka. Clarinetist Mustafa Kandıralı is a welknown fasil musician.

Military music[link]

The Janissary bands or Mehter Takımı is considered to be the oldest type of military marching band in the world.^[7] Individual instrumentalists were mentioned in the Orhun inscriptions, which are believed to be the oldest written sources of Turkish history, dating from the 8th century. However, they were not definitively mentioned as bands until the 13th century. The rest of Europe borrowed the notion of military marching bands from Turkey from the 16th century onwards.

Turkish influence on Western classical music[link]

Musical relations between the Turks and the rest of Europe can be traced back many centuries,^[8] and the first type of musical Orientalism was the Turkish Style.^[9] European classical composers in the 18th century were fascinated by Turkish music, particularly the strong role given to the brass and percussion instruments in Janissary bands.

Joseph Haydn wrote his Military Symphony to include Turkish instruments, as well as some of his operas. Turkish instruments were included in Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony Number 9, and he composed a "Turkish March" for his Incidental Music to The Ruins of Athens, Op. 113. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote the "Ronda alla turca" in his Sonata in A major and also used Turkish themes in his operas, such as the Chorus of Janissaries from his Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782). This Turkish influence introduced the cymbals, bass drum, and bells into the symphony orchestra, where they remain. Jazz musician Dave Brubeck wrote his "Blue Rondo á la Turk" as a tribute to Mozart and Turkish music.^{[citation needed]}

Western influence on Turkish classical music[link]

While the European military bands of the 18th century introduced the percussion instruments of the Ottoman janissary bands, a similar development was emerging in the opposite direction, that is the Europeanisation of the Ottoman army band, in the 19th century. It was also during this period that the famous opera composer Gaetano Donizetti's brother, Giuseppe Donizetti, was invited to become Master of Music to Sultan Mahmud II in 1827.^[10]

After the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of a Turkish republic, the transfer of the former Imperial Orchestra or Mızıka-ı Hümayun from Istanbul to the new capital of the state Ankara, and renaming it as the Orchestra of the Presidency of the Republic, Riyaset-i Cumhur Orkestrası, signalled a Westernization of Turkish music. The name would later be changed to the Presidential Symphony Orchestra or Cumhurbaşkanlığı Senfoni Orkestrası.^[1]

Further inroads came with the founding of a new school for the training of Western style music instructors in 1924, renaming the Istanbul Oriental Music School as the Istanbul Conservatory in 1926, and sending talented young musicians abroad for further music education. These students include well-known Turkish composers such as Cemal Reşit Rey, Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Ahmet Adnan Saygun, Necil Kazım Akses and Hasan Ferit Alnar, who became known as the Turkish Five.^[4] The founding of the Ankara State Conservatory with the aid of the German composer and music theorist Paul Hindemith in 1936 showed that Turkey in terms of music wanted to be like the West.^[1]

However, on the order of the founder of the republic, Atatürk, following his philosophy to take from the West but to remain Turkish in essence, a wide-scale classification and archiving of samples of Turkish folk music from around Anatolia was launched in 1924 and continued until 1953 to collect around 10,000 folk songs. Hungarian composer Béla Bartók visited Ankara and the south-eastern Turkey in 1936 within the context of these works.^[11]

By 1976, Turkish classical music had undergone a renaissance and a state musical conservatory in Istanbul was founded to give classical musicians the same support as folk musicians. Modern day advocates of Western classical music in Turkey include Fazıl Say, İdil Biret, Suna Kan and the Pekinel sisters.

Folk music[link]

	"Çiftetelli" noicon Instrumental wedding music of Istanbul. "Naat-ı Mevlana" noicon Introduction to Mevlevi religious ceremonial music.
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Kemençe is a popular folk music instrument on Turkey's Black Sea coast

Folk music or Türkü generally deals with subjects surrounding daily life in less grandiose terms than the love and emotion usually contained in its traditional counterpart, Ottoman court music.^[4]

Most songs recount stories of real life events and Turkish folklore, or have developed through song contests between troubadour poets.^[12] Corresponding to their origins, folk songs are usually played at weddings, funerals and special festivals.

Regional folk music generally accompanies folk dances, which vary significantly across regions. For example, at marriage ceremonies in the Aegean guests will dance the Zeybek, while in other Rumeli regions the upbeat dance music Çiftetelli is usually played, and in the southeastern regions of Turkey the Halay is the customary form of local wedding music and dance.^[1] Greeks from Thrace and Cyprus that have adopted çiftetelli music sometimes use it synonymously to mean oriental dance, which indicates a misunderstanding of its roots. Çiftetelli is a folk dance, differing from a solo performance dance of a hired entertainer.

The regional mood also affects the subject of the folk songs, e.g. folk songs from the Black Sea are lively in general and express the customs of the region. Songs about betrayal have an air of defiance about them instead of sadness, whereas the further south travelled in Turkey the more the melodies resemble a lament.^[13]

As this genre is viewed as a music of the people, musicians in socialist movements began to adapt folk music with contemporary sounds and arrangements in the form of protest music.

In the 70s and 80s, modern bards following the aşık tradition such as Aşik Veysel and Mahsuni Şerif moved away from spiritual invocations to socio-politically active lyrics.

Other contemporary progenitors took their lead such as Zülfü Livaneli, known for his mid-80s innovation of combining poet Nazim Hikmet's radical poems with folk music and rural melodies, and is well regarded by left-wing supporters in politics.^[1]

In more recent times, saz orchestras, accompanied with many other traditional instruments and a merger with arabesque melodies have kept modern folk songs popular in Turkey.^[1]

Folk instruments[link]

Bağlama

Folk instruments range from string groups as bağlama, bow instruments such as the kemençe (a type of stave fiddle), and percussion and wind, including the zurna, ney and davul. Regional variations place importance on different instruments, e.g. the darbuka in Rumeli and the kemençe around the Eastern Black Sea region. The folklore of Turkey is extremely diverse. Nevertheless, Turkish folk music is dominantly marked by a single musical instrument called saz or bağlama, a type of long-necked lute. Traditionally, saz is played solely by traveling musicians known as ozan or religious Alevi troubadours called aşık.^[14]

Due to the cultural crossbreeding prevalent during the Ottoman Empire, the bağlama has influenced various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, e.g. the Greek baglamas. In Turkish bağlamak means 'to tie' as a reference to the tied, movable frets of the instrument. Like many other plucked lutes, it can be played with a plectrum (i.e., pick), with a fingerpicking style, or strummed with the backs of fingernails. The zurna and davul duo is also popular in rural areas, and played at weddings and other local celebrations.

Folk Literature[link]

A large body of folk songs are derived from minstrels or bard-poets called ozan in Turkish. They have been developing Turkish folk literature since the beginning of 11th century. The musical instrument used by these bard-poets is the saz or baglama. They are often taught by other senior mistrels, learning expert idioms and procedure and methods about the performance of the art.^[15] These lessons often take place at minstrel meetings and coffeehouses frequented by them. Those bard-poets who become experts or alaylı then take apprentices for themselves and continue the tradition.^[15]

A minstrel's creative output usually takes two major forms. One, in musical rhyming contests with other bards, where the quarrel ends with the defeat of the minstrel who cannot find an appropriate quatrain to the rhyme and two, story telling.^[12] These folk stories are extracted from real life, fokelore, dreams and legends.^[15] One of the most well-known followings are those bards that put the title aşık in front of their names.

Religious music[link]

Mosque music[link]

"Mosque music," a term for music associated with mainstream religion in Turkey, includes ezan (call-to-prayer), Kur'an-ı Kerim (Koran recitation), Mevlit (Ascension Poem), and ilahi (hymns usually sung in a group, often outside a mosque). On musical grounds, mosque music in large urban areas often resembles classical Turkish music in its learned use of makam and poetry, e.g., a Mevlit sung at Sultan Ahmet mosque in Istanbul. Dervish/Sufi music is rarely associated with a mosque. Kâni Karaca was a leading performer of mosque music in recent times.^[16]

Alevi influences: The Aşık (Ashik) traditions[link]

It is suggested that about a fifth of the Turkish population are Alevis, whose folk music is performed by a type of travelling bard or ozan called aşık, who travels with the saz or baglama, an iconic image of Turkish folk music.^[14] These songs, which hail from the central northeastern area, are about mystical revelations, invocations to Alevi saints and Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali, whom they hold in high esteem. In Turkish aşık literally means 'in love'. Whoever follows this tradition has the Aşık assignation put before their names, because it is suggested that music becomes an essential facet of their being, for example as in Aşık Veysel.

Middle Anatolia is home to the bozlak, a type of declamatory, partially improvised music by the bards. Neşet Ertaş has so far been the most prominent contemporary voice of Middle Anatolian music, singing songs of a large spectrum, including works of premodern Turkoman aşıks like Karacaoğlan and Dadaloğlu and the modern aşıks like his father, the late Muharrem Ertaş. Around the city of Sivas, aşık music has a more spiritual bent, afeaturing ritualized song contests, although modern bards have brought it into the political arena.^[12]

Sufi influences: The Mevlevi traditions[link]

Followers of the Mevlevi Order or whirling dervishes are a religious sufi sect unique to Turkey but well-known outside of its boundaries.

Dervishes of the Mevlevi sect simply dance a sema by turning continuously to music that consists of long, complex compositions called ayin. These pieces are both preceded and followed by songs using lyrics by the founder and poet Mevlana Jelaleddin Rumi.^[17] With the musical instrument known as the ney at the forefront of this music, internationally well-known musicians include Necdet Yasar, Niyazi Sayin, Kudsi Ergüner and Ömer Faruk Tekbilek.

Regional folk styles[link]

Minorities and indigenous peoples have added and enhanced Turkish folk styles, while they have adopted Turkish folk traditions and instruments. Folk songs are identifable and distinguished by regions.

Aegean and Rumeli regions[link]

The region of Rumeli or Roumelia is used to indicate the part of Turkey which is in Europe, namely provinces of Edirne, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ and the western part of Istanbul Province. Folk songs from this region share similarities with Balkan and Greek folk music, especially from the ethnic minorities and natives of Thrace. Cypriot folk music also shares folk tunes with this region, e.g. the Çiftetelli dance. These type of folk songs also share close similarities with Ottoman court music, strengthening the suggestion by some that the distinction between court and folk music wasn't always so clear.^[2][4] However, it could arguably be that folk songs from Istanbul were closely influenced by its locality, which would include Ottoman rakkas and court music.

Cities like İzmir share similar motifs, such as the Zeybek dance.

Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions[link]

Central Asian Turkic peoples from the Caspian Sea and areas have had a huge influence in the purest forms of Turkish folk music, most notably from the Azeris and Turkmen.

Pontic Greeks on the eastern shore of the Black Sea or Karadeniz regions have their own distinct style of folk music, motifs from which were used with great success by Helena Paparizou.^[18] The diaspora of Greek speaking Pontic people from that region introduced Pontic music to Greece after 1924 population exchange between Turkey and Greece. The region's dance style uses unique techniques like odd shoulder tremors and knee bends. Folk dances include the gerasari, trgona, kots, omal, serra, kotsari and tik.^[18]

Southeastern regions[link]

Southeastern regions carry influences from Turkmen music, Kurdish music, Zaza motifs and Armenian music. These usually include epic laments.

Kanto (Cantare music)[link]

Italian theater and opera has had a profound effect on Turkish culture in the past century. Like the terminology of seamanship, the terminology of music and theater derived from Italian. In the argot of the improvisational theater of Istanbul the stage was called "sahano", backstage was referred to as "koyuntu", backdrops depicting countryside were "bosko", the applause was "furi" and the songs sung between the acts and plays were called "kanto".

The improvised pieces were stage adaptations of the Karagöz (shadow puppet) and Ortaoyunu (traditional form of Turkish theatre performed in the open) traditions, aithough in much more simplifled form. The themes explored in these traditional theater arts as well as their stock characterizations and stereotypes were used as the framework tor the new extemporaneous performances of the tuluat (improvised) theater.

As with their Italian counterparts the Turkish troupes employed songs and music before the show and between the acts to pique people's interest and draw in customers.

Kanto: songs sung between the acts as solos or duets, based on traditional eastern makam (modes) but performed on western instruments.

Kanto: "first the introduction, then the lyrics, shake your shoulders to a violin, solo, cock your head and shimmy in oriental dance style, leap around like a partridge, then slowly disappear behind the curtain."

Kanto: the irreplaceable unifying feature of ali Turkish tuluat theater. We can divide kanto into two periods. The division, particulariy in terms of musical structure, is very clear between the early kanto and the kanto of the Post-Republic perlod. It is further possible to identify two styles within the early period. Galata and Direklerarası (both neighbourhoods of Old Istanbul).

Kanto first took root in the musical the aters of Galata, a part of town frequented by sailors, rowdies and roustabouts. Ahmet Rasim Bey paints a vivid picture of the Galata theaters in his novel Fuhs-i Akit (An Old Whore).

"Everyone thought Peruz was the most flirtatious, most skillful and the most provocative. The seats closest to the stage were always crammed full... They said of Peruz, 'she is a trollop who has ensnared the heart of many a young man and has made herself the enemy of many. 'Her songs would hardly be finished when chairs, flowers, bouquets and beribboned letters. Come flying from the boxseats. It seemed the building would be shaken to the ground."

Direklerarası was a littie off the beaten track and in comparison to Galata was a more refined center of entertainment. Direklerarası was said to be quite lively at night during the month of Ramadan (Ramazan in Turkish) and certainly once its attractions was its family atmosphere. It was here that the troupes of Kel Hasan and Abdi Efendi and later that of Neshid enjoyed a great popularity. It was under the influence of these masters that kanto experienced its golden years.

The troupes orchestra would be made up of such instruments as the trumpet, trombone, violin, trap drum and cymbals. The orchestra would start to play popular songs of the day and marches in front of the theatre about an hour before the show to drum up interest. This intermission or Antrak music ended up with the well-known Izmir March, a sign that the show time was approaching. The play began as the musicians went in and took their places at the side of the stage.

The kanto singers of the period were also composers. Set to extraordinarily simple melodies which were the fashion of the day, the lyrics relied heavily of tensions between men and women as well as reflecting topical events. The compositions were in such fundamental makams as Rast, Hüzzam, Hicaz, Hüseyni and Nihavent. Kanto songs are remembered both by the names of their interpreters and by their creators, artists such as Peruz, Shamran, Kamelya, Eleni. Küçük and Büyük Amelya, Mari Ferha and Virjin. That kanto brought an erotic element to the stage performance was an important aspect and one that should not be overlooked or separated out.

Art and cultural life gained new dimensions with the changes brought about by the 1923 formation of the Turkish Republic. It was a period of rapid transformation and its effects were widespread. Turkish women had finally won the freedom to appear on the stage, breaking the monopoly previously held by Rûm (Istanbul Greek) and Armenian women who performed in musical and non-musical theatre. Institutions like Darulbedayi (Istanbul City Theatre) and Darulelhan (Istanbul Conservatory of Music) had long been turning out trained artists.

Western lifestyles and Western-style art put pressure on the traditional Turkish formats and these were swept off to the side. The operetta, the tango, then later the Charleston and the foxtrot overshadowed kanto. Kanto's popoularity began to fade, the city's centers of entertainment shifted, and the theaters of Galata and Direklerarası were closed down. Turkish female artists were unreceptive to kanto's inherent ribairy and chose to keep their distance from it.

Around 1935, there was a revival of interest in the kanto form. Aithough rather far from its fundamental principles, a new type of kanto was once again popular.

It is important to point out that kanto had now moved from the stage to the recording studio. While the subjects dealt with in the lyrics were stili the same old quarreis between men and women, mixed in with satirical takes on fashion and current events, the songs were being written with the 78 rpm phonograph in mind. So much so that every record label hired their own kanto composers—and rather famous ones at that. With Columbia at the fore, record labels commissioned kanto from Kaptanzade Ali Rıza Bey, Refik Fersan, Dramalı Hasan, Sadettin Kaynak, Cümbüş Mehmet and Mildan Niyazi Bey. The makams were the same but the instrumentation had changed. Kanto were now accompanied by cümbüş (a fretlees banjo like instrument) the ud (a fretless) lute, and calpara (castenets). Foxtrot, Charleston and rumba rhythms dominated. The tunes were being written and sung more tor listening than tor dancing. Female soloists include Makbule Enver, Mahmure, and Neriman; Beşiktaşlı Kemal Senman was the most sought after male singer for duets.

Among the topics explored by the new kantocu (singer or composer of kanto) perhaps the most frequent subjert of satire was the new role of women brought about by the formation of the Republic. Songs like Sarhoş Kızlar (Drunken Girls) or Şoför Kadınlar (Women Drivers) were sung seemingly in revenge tor ali the suffering they had endured at the hands of men in the past. Other topical songs include Daktilo (The Typewriter) which brought to mind the newly formed Secretaires 7 Society. Songs such as Bereli Kız (The Girl with the Beret) and Kadın Asker Olursa (Women Were Soldiers) were full of mockery and ridicule.

The early period kanto were largely nourished by Istanbul culture. It was much the same in the Post-Republican period. The city's large and diverse population provided both the characters and the events that were the mainstay of kanto. Kanto was heavily influenced by musical theatre. Roman (gypsy) music and culture, which was itself the subject of satire, left its mark on kanto form. Another major influence was Rum music. The importance of the Istanbul Rum, who were so fond of entertainment and of singing and playing, must not be underestimated. It is a natural and inevitable resuit of cultural exchange. As it was, almost all the kanto singers were either Rum or Armenian, artist like Pepron, Karakas^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Haim^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Samran and Peruz who performed during the period following 1903.

Eventually kanto became more of a definition, a generalized genre than a musical term. Any tune that was outside of the day's musical conventions, anything light that appealed to current trends and tastes, was labeled kanto. Any music played with different instruments that was free rhythmic or somehow novel was labeled kanto; it was the product of the middie-class, urban culture of Istanbul.

Kanto has been viewed as a forerunner of today's pop culture.

Popular music[link]

Popular music is distinguished from the traditional genres as those styles that entered the Turkish musicality after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, either due to attempts of national modernization from 1924 onwards, the opening of the republic to Western musical influences or modern fusions and innovations from artists themselves.^[1]

Mainstream pop[link]

Tarkan in Vienna with fans from Hungary

Turkish pop music had its humble beginnings in the late 1950s with Turkish cover versions of a wide range of imported popular styles, including rock and roll, tango, and jazz. As more styles emerged, they were also adopted, such as hip hop, heavy metal and reggae.

The self named "superstar" of the "arrangement" (aranjman) era of the 70s was Ajda Pekkan who also debuted, along with Enrico Macias, at Olympia, Paris, while MFÖ (Mazhar, Fuat, Özkan) was the celebrated group of the pop scene with an outstanding dexterity in their use of Turkish prosody and their success of amalgamating Western and Turkish cultural ingredients and perspectives. Also one of the most renowned Turkish pop stars of the last decades is probably Sezen Aksu. She contributed considerably to the unique Turkish pop sound of this period, allowing it gain ground from its humble beginnings in the early 50s and 60s to the popular genre it is today. She was also one of the strongest advocates for Turkey to enter the Eurovision Song Contest. Her one-time vocalist and later protegé Sertab Erener won the contest in 2003.

The biggest male pop stars in Turkey are arguably Tarkan, Mustafa Sandal and Kenan Doğulu. Tarkan achieved chart success in Europe and Latin America with his single "Şımarık", also composed by Sezen Aksu, which has been covered by numerous artists.^[19] Mustafa Sandal has also enjoyed chart success in Europe with his 2005 single "İsyankar", which peaked at number 4 and went gold.

Turkish hip hop[link]

Turkish hip hop or oriental hip hop is a creation of the Turkish migrant worker community in Germany, which some suggest was a suitable outlet for a young generation disillusioned with Germany's treatment of its migrant class.^[20] In 1995, the Turkish-German community produced a major hip hop crew named Cartel which caused controversy in Turkey and Germany for its revolutionary lyrics. Hip hop now enjoys wide popularity among the younger generation in Turkey. Ceza (formerly "Nefret") and Sagopa Kajmer are popular figures of contemporary rap music in Turkey. Another popular Turkish hip-hop group is called "Turks with Attitude" who have a popular track called "My Melody". This track samples from the American rapper Rakim's "Check Out my Melody", using a traditional form of Turkish music called arabesque to blend the two styles and cultures together.

Arabesque[link]

Starting in the 1970s, immigration from predominantly southeastern rural areas to big cities and particularly to Istanbul gave rise to a new cultural synthesis. This changed the musical makeup of Istanbul. The old tavernas and music halls of fasıl music were to shut down in place of a new type of music.^[1] These new urban residents brought their own taste of music, which due to their locality was largely middle eastern. Musicologists derogatively termed this genre as arabesque due to the high pitched wailing that is synonymous with Arabic singing.

Its mainstream popularity rose so much in the 1980s that it even threatened the existence of Turkish pop, with rising stars such as Muslum Gurses and Ibrahim Tatlises.^[1] The genre has underbeat forms that include Ottoman forms of belly-dancing music known as fantazi from singers like Gülben Ergen and with performers like Orhan Gencebay who added Anglo-American rock and roll to arabesque music.

Anatolian rock[link]

The Turkish rock scene began in the mid- to late 1960s, when popular United States and United Kingdom bands became well-known. Soon, a distinctively Turkish fusion of rock and folk emerged; this was called Anatolian rock, a term which nowadays may be generically ascribed to most of Turkish rock.^[1] Cem Karaca and Barış Manço are the best known performers and Moğollar is the best known group of older classical Anatolian rock music.

Islamic Anasheed[link]

Islamic anasheed are also very popular among some of the Turkish people. The most popular artist in Turkey is the British Azeri, Sami Yusuf, a concert in Istanbul drew an audience of over 200,000, his biggest concert so far around the world.^[21] He is one of the most notable singers of anasheed, and can speak in many different languages, which includes Turkish.^{[citation needed]} To date he has performed at sell out concerts in over 30 countries across the world from Istanbul to Casablanca, United States to Germany. Some albums selling more than a million copies in comparison to western music. In Jan 2009 Sami travelled to Turkey where he was invited by Emine Erdoğan, wife of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to attend a rally in support of peace in Gaza.^[22] Another popular Turkish singer is Feridun Özdemir, who mainly sings of God and true faith. His records are most successful in the anasheed genre.^[23]

Heavy metal and industrial[link]

Heavy metal and industrial groups from Turkey include Pentagram (known as Mezarkabul outside Turkey)and Almora.^[24] Individual musicians in these genres include Ogün Sanlısoy and Hayko Cepkin.

Underground black metal and death metal[link]

Underground black metal and death metal bands known from Turkey are Witchtrap, Ehrimen, Godslaying Hellblast, Burial Invocation, Deggial, Decaying Purity.

Pop-rock and rock[link]

As a singular phenomenon amidst popular currents since the mid-70s, Bülent Ortaçgil appeared as an urban songwriter/musician with a distinct musical quality, and became a role model for aspiring young musicians.^{[citation needed]} He was the only Turkish musician for whom a tribute album was compiled that included several prominent performers from a wide gamut of different genres.

Other recent rock bands with a more Western sound who have enjoyed mainstream success include maNga, Duman and Mor ve Ötesi. Şebnem Ferah, Özlem Tekin and Teoman are examples of individual rock artists with substantial fan bases. Turkey also boasts numerous large-scale rock festivals and events. Annual rock festivals in Turkey include Barışarock, H2000 Music Festival, Rock'n Coke, and RockIstanbul.

Underground and clubs[link]

There are many clubs across Turkey, especially across its Aegean region. The alternative music scene however is derived mostly from Istanbul's thriving underground club scene that sees DJs merging the past with the present, utilising traditional motifs with new age sounds and electronic music. Mercan Dede is one of Turkey's most successful DJs, mixing trance with historical and mystic Sufi songs. Another worldwide recognized name from the underground music scene of Turkey is Mert Yücel. Yücel was responsible for the first house music album to be released in Turkey.^[25] He also had worldwide acclaimed and respected releases on US and UK dance labels.^[26] He is one of the key names defining the underground house sound emerging from Istanbul.^[27][28]

Music industry[link]

The Turkish music industry includes a number of fields, ranging from record companies to radio stations and community and state orchestras. Most of the major record companies are based in Istanbul's region of Unkapanı and they are represented by the Turkish Phonographic Industry Society (MÜ-YAP).^[29] The major record companies produce material by artists that have signed to one of their record labels, a brand name often associated with a particular genre or record producer. Record companies may also promote and market their artists, through advertising, public performances and concerts, and television appearances.

In recent years, the music industry has been embroiled in turmoil over the rise of the Internet downloading of copyrighted music and general piracy; many musicians and MÜ-YAP have sought to punish fans who illegally download copyrighted music.^[29] On 13 June 2006 it was reported that MÜ-YAP and The Orchard, the world's leading distributor and marketer of independent music, had reached an agreement on digital global distribution, representing approximately 80% of the Turkish music market.^[30]

There is not a substantial singles market in Turkey.^[1] It is album orientated, although popular singers such as Yonca Evcimik and Tarkan have released singles with success.^[31] Most music charts not related to album sales, measure popularity by music video feedback and radio airplay.^[32]

Turkish radio stations often broadcast popular music. Each music station has a format, or a category of songs to be played; these are generally similar to but not the same as ordinary generic classification. With the introduction of commercial radio and television in the early 1990s ending the monopoly of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), a multitude of radio and TV stations were opened by newspaper media moguls.^[1] These media chains sponsor award ceremonies such as the Kral TV awards for music, but most accredited music awards are based on sales given out by industry societies such as MÜ-YAP and the Magazine Journalists Society (MJS).^[33][34]

Though major record companies dominate the Turkish industry, an independent music industry (indie music) does exist. Indie music is mostly based around local record labels with limited, if any, retail distribution outside a small region. Artists sometimes record for an indie label and gain enough acclaim to be signed to a major label; others choose to remain at an indie label for their entire careers. Indie music may be in styles generally similar to mainstream music, but is often inaccessible, unusual or otherwise unappealing to many people. Indie musicians often release some or all of their songs over the Internet for fans and others to download and listen to.^[3]

Perhaps the most successful Turkish name associated with the indie music outside of Turkey is Ahmet Ertegün of Atlantic Records. His promotion of some of the most famous R&B and soul artists in North America and his contribution to the American music industry has earned a place in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, together with his brother Nesuhi.

Music education[link]

Music is an important part of education in Turkey, and is a part of most or all school systems in the country. High schools generally offer classes in singing, mostly choral, and instrumentation in the form of a large school band or social clubs and communities for Turkish classical or folk music, known as cemiyets.^[1] Music may also be a part of theatrical productions put on by a school's drama department. Many public and private schools have sponsored music clubs and groups, most commonly including the marching band that performs Mehter marches at school festivals.

Higher education in the field of music in Turkey is mostly based around large universities, connected to state music academies and conservatories. A conservatory is usually a department of a university, not a separate institution. While many students join conservatories at the usual university entrance age, some conservatories also include a 'Lise' (Lycee), in effect a specialist music school for children aged 14 to 18 years. Conservatories often have a musicology department, and do research on many styles of music especially the Turkish traditional genres, while also keeping a database of sounds in their sound libraries.^[1]

Holidays and festivals[link]

Music is an important part of several Turkish holidays and festivals, especially playing a major part in the springtime celebration of Newroz and religious festivities such as Ramadan.^[1] New year is a traditional time for the belly dancer and weddings are celebrated with upbeat tunes, while funerals are mourned with musical laments. Patriotic songs like the national anthem, "The Independence March", are a major part of public holiday celebrations such as National Children's Day celebrations on 23 April and 30 August Victory Day celebrations, a holiday that marks Turkish independence.^[1] Music also plays a role at many regional festivals that aren't celebrated nationwide, for example a music and dance parade and festival in Zonguldak.

Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir are also home to numerous music festivals which showcase styles ranging from the blues and jazz to indie rock and heavy metal. Some music festivals are strictly local in scope, including few or no performers with a national reputation, and are generally operated by local promoters. Recently large soft drink companies have operated their own music festivals, such as Rock'n Coke and Fanta parties, which draw huge crowds.

See also[link]

• List of Turkish composers
• Turkish musical instruments
• Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest
• List of music festivals in Turkey
• List of Turkish musicians
• List of Turks in world culture
• Mercan Dede
• Baba Zula
• Wojciech Bobowski
• Arif Mardin
• The Ertegün Brothers
• Emre Araci

Notes and references[link]

Further reading[link]

• Signell, Karl (1977). Makam: Modal practice in Turkish Art Music. Asian Music Publications. ISBN 0-306-76248-X. 
• Head, Matthew (2000). Orientalism, Masquerade and Mozart's Turkish Music (Royal Musical Association Monographs S.). Ashgate. ISBN 0-306-76248-X. 
• Bellman, Jonathan (1993). The Style Hongrois in the Music of Western Europe. Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-169-5. 
• Popescu-Judetz, Eugenia (1999). Prince Dimitrie Cantemir: Theorist and Composer of Turkish music. Pan Books. ISBN 975-7652-82-2. 
• Tietze, Andreas & Yahalom, Joseph (1995). Ottoman Melodies - Hebrew Hymns: A 16th Century Cross-Cultural Adventure. Akademiai Kiado, Bibliotheca Orientalis Hungarica. ISBN 963-05-6864-0. 
• Karakayali, Nedim (2010). Two Assemblages of Cultural Transmission: Musicians, Political Actors and Educational Techniques in the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe. Journal of Historical Sociology, 23 (3): 343-371. 
• Stokes, Martin (2000). Sounds of Anatolia. Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0. 
• Bartok, Bela & Suchoff, Benjamin (1976). Turkish Folk Music from Asia Minor (The New York Bartok Archive Studies in Musicology, No. 7). Princeton Univ Pr. ISBN 0-691-09120-X. 
• "Whose Song is it?". Yildirim, Ali © Tarkan Deluxe. http://tarkandeluxe.blogspot.com/2004/11/whose-song-is-it.html. Retrieved November 9, 2004. 
• "Yunus Emre: Sufi and Mystic". Yildirim, Ali © Tarkan Deluxe. http://tarkandeluxe.blogspot.com/2004/12/turkish-humanism-in-13th-century.html. Retrieved December 18, 2004. 
• "Turkish Music". Turkish Embassy. Archived from the original on February 14, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070214051002/http://www.turkishembassy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=101&Itemid=113. Retrieved April 16, 2006. 
• Jäger, Ralf Martin (1996). Türkische Kunstmusik und ihre handschriftlichen Quellen aus dem 19. Jahrhundert (Schriften zur Musikwissenschaft aus Münster 7). Wagner: Eisenach. ISBN 3-88979-072-0. 
• De Zorzi, Giovanni (2010). Musiche di Turchia. Tradizioni e transiti tra Oriente e Occidente. con un saggio di Kudsi Erguner. Milano: Ricordi/Universal Music.
• A website devoted to contemporary Turkish Music from Istanbul: http://www.newmusicistanbul.com/

External links[link]

Find more about Music of Turkey on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
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	Source texts from Wikisource
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• Turkish music publications by Karl Signell.
• Turkish Music Quarterly print journal contents.
• BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Selim Sesler, troubadour songs and an Alevi ceremony. Accessed November 25, 2010.
• BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Aynur, Erkan Ogur, Kirike and Rembetiko. Accessed November 25, 2010.
• (French) Audio clips: Traditional music of Turkey. Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève. Accessed November 25, 2010.
• Turkish Music Portal All about Turkish Music
• Music of Turkey
• Crossing The Bridge: Sounds from Istanbul
• Turkish Music and Voice Library
• Music at the Uysal-Walker Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative
• Ney Making House Web Site
• Turkish Clarinet Music
• Golden Horn Records
• Turkish Musical Instruments Shop
• Insomnia Radio: Turkiye (Turkish Indie Music Available in English & Turkish)
• Lifting the Boundaries: Muzaffer Efendi and the Transmission of Sufism to the West by Gregory Blann
• Field music of the Ottoman Court and Europe
• Mevlit "Merhaba bahrı" excerpt sung by Kâni Karaca
• Kanto
• Feza Neverd Interesting instrumental music composed by Mehmet Gencler
• Comprehensive Turkish Music Video Archive
• Rock Music Turkey
• Turkish Top 20
• Matthaios Tsahouridis, a great Pontic Lyra player

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This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2010)

İbrahim Tatlıses
Background information
Also known as	İbo
Born	1/1/1952
Occupations	Singer, actor, director, writer, producer, businessman
Instruments	davul, zurna, violin
Years active	1970 - present
Labels	Various
Website	İbrahim Tatlıses

İbrahim Tatlıses, also known as İbo (born January 1, 1952), is a Kurdish pop-folk singer (singing in Kurdish & Turkish) and actor. He was born in the city of Şanlıurfa, in southeastern Anatolia. Tatlıses has recorded 25 albums, including notable albums such as Ayağında Kundura and Selam Olsun. He is also the host of the television programme İbo Show and is a leading actor who has appeared in several dozen films. He has directed most of the films he acted in. Also, he is a businessman involved in the restaurant and tourism businesses, as well as in construction projects in Iraqi Kurdistan.^[1] He has been the target of a serious assassination attempt in 2011

Biography[link]

İbrahim Tatlıses was born in the south-eastern town of Sanliurfa and is of Arabic and Kurdish descent. His father died when he was a child, and Tatlıses was raised by his Mother Leyla. He began singing at weddings when he was young.

Then while he was working in constructions as a normal worker, singing, his singing was heard by a businessman from Adana, and he started appearing in nightclubs.

Ayağında Kundura, released in 1975 helped him spread his name throughout Turkey.

He now has a lot of companies in various industries and had been a candidate in the 2007 General Elections in Turkey, in which his party, Genç Parti could not overcome the election threshold of 10% which further resulted in him not being elected.

Shootings[link]

He was shot in the leg in 1990, and survived an assassination attempt in 1998. In March 2011, he was attacked and was wounded seriously in the headshot.^{[2] [3]}

2011 Shooting[link]

On Monday March 14, 2011, at 00:30 local time, Ibrahim Tatlises and his spokeswoman Buket Çakıcı were shot at by unknown assailants after leaving the offices of the private Turkish channel Beyaz TV following his weekly television show. While entering their vehicle Tatlises was hit with a bullet that entered the back of his skull and exited through the front. His spokeswoman was also hit in the neck, but survived the attack. The perpetrators carried Kalashnikov rifles and escaped in a black car ^[4]. He was taken to the Acıbadem Hospital in Istanbul for emergency treatment.^[5] He underwent a four-hour surgery to have the bullet removed and slowly recovered from his critical condition.^[6] After Tatlises's operation, he was in a stable condition and put to rest for a week. Then the doctors made the announcement saying he is recovering well and healing. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited him to see how he was coping. He then made an announcement publicly reporting he is in a good condition and his traveling along fine. The police in Turkey have reported to have caught around 20 criminals involved in the attack. On Thursday April the 7th, Tatlıses left Acıbadem Hospital with a police escort and travelled to the Atatürk International Airport where he boarded the Ministry of Health’s Hawker 900XP air ambulance. He left for Germany, where he will receive six months of physical rehabilitation in a condensed period of one month.^[7] He returned from Germany.

Ibrahim got married to Ayşegül Yıldız in the Dar al Shifa Hospital on Sept. 27th 2011.

Discography[link]

1. 1965 Ozel Album
2. 1970 Kara Kız
3. 1974 Palandöken Plak
4. 1975 Ben İnsan Değil Miyim?
5. 1975 Ayağında Kundura
6. 1975 Yağmur
7. 1976 Urfa Emektaroglu Bant Studyosu
8. 1976 Ashab Gecesi
9. 1978 Ölürsem Kabrime Gelme Istemem
10. 1978 Doldur Kardeş Icelim
11. 1980 Ceylan
12. 1981 Acı Gerçekler
13. 1982 Yalan
14. 1983 Yaşamak Bu Değil
15. 1984 Benim Hayatim
16. 1984 Mutlu Ol Yeter
17. 1985 Mavi Mavi
18. 1986 Gülüm Benim
19. 1987 Allah Allah - Hülya
20. 1986 Amerika Konseri
21. 1988 Kara Zindan
22. 1989 Fosforlu Cevriyem
23. 1989 Insanlar
24. 1990 Ben Aşk İçin Ölürüm
25. 1990 Söylim Mi - Hesabim Var
26. 1991 Vur Gitsin Beni - Yemin Ettim
27. 1992 Ah Keşkem
28. 1993 Mega Aşk
29. 1994 Haydi Söyle
30. 1995 Klasikleri
31. 1996 Bende Isterem
32. 1996 Türkü Dinle Türkü Söyle
33. 1998 At Gitsin
34. 1998 Sabuha
35. 1999 Selam Olsun
36. 2001 Yetmez Mi
37. 2002 Megamix
38. 2003 Tek Tek
39. 2003 Yaşamak Bu Değil
40. 2004 Imparatordan Uzun Havalar
41. 2004 Aramam
42. 2005 Israil Konseri
43. 2005 Sizler Için
44. 2007 Türküler
45. 2007 Bulamadim
46. 2008 Neden
47. 2009 Benim Remixlerim
48. 2009 Yağmurla Gelen Kadin
49. 2009 Iste Tatlises
50. 2010 Imparatorun Doğuşu
51. 2010 Hani Gelecektin
52. 2011 Mucize

Filmography[link]

References[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2009)

Ebru Gündeş (Turkish pronunciation: [ebˈɾu ɟynˈdeʃ] ; Persian:ایبرو گوندش; born 12 October 1974, İstanbul) is a Turkish pop-folk singer, actress, and television personality.

Early life[link]

Ebru Gündeş went to primary school in Ankara. Moving back to İstanbul with her family afterwards, she had to discontinue her education due to financial hardship. She also spent a fair amount of her life in Izmir.

The quality of her voice was discovered at an early age when one of her relatives took her to Neşe Demirkat, a partner of Raks Neşe Müzik a record label in Turkey. Neşe Demirkat was impressed with her voice and introduced her to music producers Koral Sarıtaş and Selçuk Tekay.

Career[link]

Ebru Gündeş sings the kind of desperately tragic arabesk love songs that are the core of Turkish popular music. Besides Turkey, she is especially popular in Iran where she was voted one of the favourite singers.^{[citation needed]}

Her debut album, Tanrı Misafiri, was released in 1992. It proved to be a massive success and sold 1,250,000 copies. At this stage she was a very sweet and innocent-looking girl, slim, dressed in white and with an attractive way of raising one eyebrow. She was on billboards all over Istanbul. Coming as she did from one of Istanbul's less affluent districts, with a rough manner and speaking voice in contrast to her beautiful singing voice, she garnered lots of public support. Her subsequent albums have been hugely successful and are listed below.

Stardom has taken its toll on her health. She suffered from a brain haemorrhage in December 1999 while recording the album Dön Ne Olur, which resulted in two very serious operations. She spent a lot of time away from the public eye, recuperating, and eventually she returned to full health. Dön Ne Olur was one of the best-selling albums ever in Turkey. In November 2001 she released the album Ahdım Olsun. This album embodied the pain of the experience she endured from December 1999 to November 2001. It also offered a clear story line for the events that took place in her life that year.

Television career[link]

Ebru Gündeş has made hundreds of television appearances in Turkey as a singer and recently as an actress in a situation comedy İmkansız Aşk (Impossible Love). She was also the host of her Mega Show, one of the most-watched television shows in Turkey. Every week Ebru was joined by a variety of other Turkish singers, most notably her long-time friends Serdar Ortaç and İbrahim Tatlıses. The show featured Ebru singing her own songs, singing classic songs and singing duets with other singers. She then appeared in the hugely popular singing contest Popstar Alaturka as a guest judge along with Turkey's most popular singer the diva Bülent Ersoy, Orhan Gencebay and Armagan Çaglayan. Just before leaving Popstar Alaturka because of her relationship problems with the show's host she released her new album Evet (Yes).^{[citation needed]}

Ebru Gundes has released her new album "BEYAZ" meaning white. Her New album has been an amazing success as all of her previous albums. Songs from Ebru Gundes "Beyaz" 1. Ağlamayacağım 2. Vatan 3. Ferman 4. Beyaz 5. Hayrandım 6. Bir Gün Olacak 7. Yazık 8. Cumartesi 9. Hiçbir Zaman 10. Aldırma Deli Gönül 11. Severek Öleceğim 12. Kime Ne'

Personal life[link]

Ebru has been married 3 times. in February 2010 She is married to Reza Zarrab (Persian and Azerbaijani:رضا زراب) a very successful Iranian Azerbaijani^[1] businessman. Her last wedding was a very small ceremony and no photos have been published yet unlike her other weddings. She has said in one interview that since her brain haemorrhage she looks at life and lives her life very differently. Since then she also sometimes suffers from panic attacks with regards to her health for which she is under treatment for. In late March 2011 Ebru announced that she is expecting her first child. Ebru Gundes gave birth to a daughter called Alara on the 15th of October 2011 at the Florence Nightingale Hospital. Alara, who was born at 3 kg and 49 cm.

Discography[link]

• Tanrı Misafiri (God's Guest) 1992
• Tatlı Bela (Sweet Curse) 1994
• Ben Daha Büyümedim (I Haven't Grown Up Yet) 1995
• Kurtlar Sofrası (In the Company of Wolves) 1996
• Sen Allah’ın Bir Lütfusun (You Are a Gift of Allah) 1998
• Dön Ne Olur (Please Come Back) 2000
• Klasikler (Classics) 2000
• Hayat, Kadere Inat Seni Sil Baştan Yaşayacağım... Ahdım Olsun (It’s my vow that, life, stubborn destiny I will be reunited with you once more in my years) 2001
• Şahane (Great) 2003; has sold over 300,000 units.^[2]
• Bize de Bu Yakışır (This is the Right Way for Us) 2004; has sold more than 300,000 units.
• Kaçak (Fugitive) 2006
• Evet (Yes) 2008
• Beyaz - (White) - 2011

References[link]

http://www.ensonhaber.com/ebru-gundes-dogum-yapti-2011-10-15.html

External links[link]

• Ebru Gündeş official website [1]
• Ebru Gündeş Facebook official site [2]

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Serdar Ortaç (Turkish pronunciation: [seɾˌdaɾ oɾˈtatʃ], born 16 February 1970) is one of the popular singers of the Turkish pop folk music since the 1990s.

Discography[link]

Appearances[link]

See also[link]

• Music of Turkey
• Turkish pop music
• Mustafa Sandal
• Sezen Aksu
• Tarkan
• Kenan Doğulu

References[link]

• Biyografi.info – Biography of Serdar Ortaç (Turkish)

External links[link]

• Serdar Ortaç at the Internet Movie Database
• Serdar Ortaç's official website (Turkish) / (English)
• Serdar Ortaç's official Fan club
• Video clip of his song Gitme ("Don't go")
• Video clip of his song Dansöz ("The Belly Dancer")
• Video clip of his song Mesafe ("Distance")
• Video Clip of his song Sor ("Ask")

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Željko Joksimović	Best Male Performer in the Balkans 2010	Succeeded by [to be determined]