Nuray Hafiftaş

Nuray Hafiftaş — Biography

Nuray Hafiftaş was one of the best-known women interpreters of Turkish folk music in recent decades, remembered for songs she sang as well as for those she wrote and composed herself. The press often called her the "Ahu Gözlü" of Turkish folk music. She was born in Çıldır (some sources give her birth year as 1964) into a Karapapak family of Azerbaijani Turkish origin, and she died in Istanbul on 14 February 2018.

After graduating from the Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory, Hafiftaş worked for four years as a salaried artist at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory, and in the same years for four years as a contracted artist at Istanbul Radio. Her first album, Asker Mektubu, came out in 1987; through the 1990s records such as Dön İki Gözüm, Dilanım, Atılmaz Sevda, Dinle and Eline Düştüm followed, including an album of Azeri folk songs. The 2000s brought Eyvah Gönül, Leyli Leyli, Sılayı Ver, Yıllarım and Yazı Bir Dert Kışı Bir Dert; her later work was İstanbul ve Sen (2016) and a duet album with Yunus Bülbül, Düet Arabesk 2018. Yarim was released after her death, in 2019.

She wrote the words or music of more than a hundred pieces; Kibariye sang Ayrılık Nikahı, Yalan Dünya and İsyan Ediyorum, and İzzet Yıldızhan sang Hasret and Gurbet. She died after a period of cancer treatment and, following a state ceremony at Teşvikiye Mosque on 15 February, was buried at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery.