İsmail Türüt

İsmail Türüt — Biography

İsmail Türüt was born on 8 June 1965 in the village of Ambarlık in Rize, the second-oldest of four children, and completed his early schooling in the village. Known for folk songs rooted in the eastern Black Sea tradition, he began his recording career with his first album in 1982 and went on to release more than thirty albums; from the 1990s onward he made joint recordings with fellow artists such as Cengiz Kurtoğlu, Ozan Arif and Erkan Ocaklı. In 2000 he was named best male folk artist at a music awards ceremony, hosted a long-running variety program under his own name across several television channels for years, and starred in two television series.

In May 2001 he was shot in the leg during a stage performance. He was tried over a song whose lyrics were alleged to praise those convicted in the assassination of Hrant Dink, and separately over a campaign song he wrote for a political candidate ahead of the 1994 local elections; he was acquitted in both cases.

Married in 1996 and divorced in 2014, and the father of four children, Türüt is also known for his conservative-nationalist views and continues to perform concerts both in Turkey and abroad.