Atilla Şereftuğ

Atilla Şereftuğ — Biography

Two songs that represented Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest, in 1986 and 1988, came from Atilla Şereftuğ, a Turkish-Swiss composer, arranger, producer and pianist. His name is most closely tied to Ne partez pas sans moi, which Celine Dion sang to win the 1988 contest, giving Switzerland its second victory after its first in 1956.

He started in music very young. He entered the Istanbul Conservatory at four and a half and gave his first concert at seven. At twelve he began playing piano in a band, and at fourteen he became pianist and arranger for Tülay German. He toured Europe at nineteen, then settled in Switzerland in 1974 and trained at the jazz conservatory in Bern.

His Eurovision story began in 1986, when Pas pour moi, written with Nella Martinetti, won the Swiss final and, sung by Daniela Simmons, finished second in Bergen behind the Belgian entry. Two years later Ne partez pas sans moi took the Swiss heat by just seven votes; in the Dublin final Celine Dion carried it to victory by a single point. Şereftuğ married Daniela Simmons in 1991, and the couple had a son in 1992. His brother Faruk Şereftuğ played bass guitar in Cem Karaca's band Apaşlar and was killed in 2003.