Hakkı Bulut

Hakkı Bulut — Biography

Hakkı Bulut is a singer, composer, producer and actor counted among those who laid the foundations of arabesque music, writing the words and music of most of his own songs. With sixty-five albums, about a thousand compositions and songs recorded by dozens of other artists, he is among the genre's most prolific names. Now in his eighties, he still performs; in August 2026 he gave a free concert to thousands in Kayseri.

Before music he spent about twelve years as a teacher and school principal, and he is a graduate of the Adana Teachers' School. His first record, Leylam, came out in 1967, with Orhan Gencebay and Arif Sağ accompanying him on bağlama. In 1969 he won the Altın Ses contest in Adana, and İkimiz Bir Fidanız, which he sang that year, made him known nationwide; Tülay Özer, İbrahim Tatlıses and Kamuran Akkor later recorded it too. Ben Buyum, Falcı and Son Mektup belong to this period. In 1988 his Seven Kıskanır, presented at a Ministry of Culture congress, officially opened TRT's doors to arabesque for the first time. In cinema he appeared in Dokunmayın Dünyama (1977) and Ah İstanbul, among others, and later in Aşkopat (2015) and Hayati Tehlike (2016). His latest album, Düşmanı Uzakta Arama Dostum, came out in 2020.

He holds six gold records and a gold CD. In May 2026 he performed at the 13th Spring Festival; that month his tearful reaction to a prank during a TikTok broadcast drew wide coverage.