Ferdi Tayfur

November 15, 1945

Ferdi Tayfur (Born: Ferdi Tayfur Turanbayburt, born November 15, 1945) is one of Turkey's most successful and famous Turkish arabesque singer, actor and composer. In recent years, he has also become popular in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Trinidad and Tobago,Syria and Iran. He achieved estimated sales of over 50-60 million records worldwide. He was born in Hurriyet neighbourhood of Adana, Turkey and he has led a successful career in arabesque music. Being successful in his arabesque career he has been announced as the King of Arabesque, a music type very popular in today's Turkey and the middle east. His father, Cumali, who was a big fan of a famous theater and dubbing actor "Ferdi Tayfur" named his youngest son after him. After his father was killed, he was not able to continue his education because he had to work in the cotton fields of Cukurova to support his family. Ferdi Tayfur went to Istanbul when he was 17 with dreams of becoming a famous singer. He was not able to succeed on doing this and so he returned to Adana after a short stay in Istanbul. He came back to Istanbul in the early 1970s and his constant attempts to become a singer finally started to pay off. He has got over 100 music albums and over 30 films in his credit and he has received the prestigious Golden Album Award nine times. In 2000, he almost lost one of his toes due to diabetes. He has got millions of fans both in Turkey and in Europe (particularly among Turks in Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark and The Netherlands).