Nil Burak

Nil Burak — Biography

Nil Burak, born Pembe Nihal Munsif on 27 April 1948 in Lefke, Cyprus, is a Turkish Cypriot pop singer and actress. The youngest of three children of one of the island's earliest cinema operators, she attended the American Girls' College in Cyprus, then went to England to study languages and first performed on stage as an amateur at a London restaurant.

During a 1975 holiday in Istanbul she sang at a leading nightclub, where her stage name is said to have been coined by Zeki Müren. She went on to perform at the Maksim nightclubs and built a recording career that moved from 45 rpm singles to albums, producing hits such as Boş Vere Boşvere, Yalnızım Ben and her signature song Sen de Başını Alıp Gitme. In 1985 she won first prize for Turkey at the Palermo Music Festival with Güneş Bir Kere Doğdu, and in 1986 she took three awards at the Cavan festival in Ireland. She has performed at venues including the Paris Olympia and London's Talk of the Town.

She returned to Cyprus with her family in 1996 and entered the tourism business, resuming her music career in 2008 with the album Bir Numaramsın. As an actress she appeared in films such as Gülşah (1975) and Eksik Etek (1976) and the television series Çalıkuşu (1986) and Avrupa Yakası (2004).