Ferdi Tayfur

Ferdi Tayfur — Biography

Ferdi Tayfur — born Ferdi Tayfur Turanbayburt in Adana's Hürriyet neighborhood on 15 November 1945 — left school after his father was killed leaving a nightclub, and went on to work farm jobs and as an apprentice in a candy shop. He travelled to Istanbul as a young man hoping to become a singer, played the bağlama, and launched his recording career with a first single in 1967; in 1976 he made his screen debut in Çeşme, directed by Temel Gürsu, opposite Necla Nazır.

Known to the public as "Ferdi Baba" and the "King of Arabesque," he was awarded nine Golden Record prizes and frequently wove songs he had written into the films he starred in. With more than thirty albums and over thirty films to his name, he received the State Artist title, restructured his record label — originally called Odebs — as Ferdifon in 1982, and entered the construction business in 2009. In 2020 he received a kidney transplant from his son.

He was hospitalized in Antalya and died there on 2 January 2025 of liver and kidney failure, and was buried at Yeniköy Cemetery in Istanbul. In September 2025, at the initiative of Devlet Bahçeli, an art park and museum bearing his name opened in Adana's Sarıçam district.