Tülay German

Tülay German — Biography

Tülay German (born 27 January 1935 in Istanbul) is a Turkish singer and writer. She was educated at the Üsküdar American Academy, and Wikidata records her as a jazz musician as well as a singer. Abroad she performed under the stage name Toulaï.

She came to prominence in the 1960s for reworking Turkish folk material in contemporary arrangements and is counted among the forerunners of the Anadolu pop movement; French-language sources in particular credit her with fusing traditional Anatolian sonorities with modern arrangements. Associated with songs such as "Yarının Şarkısı", she was equally known for her political stance and her closeness to the leftist intellectual circles of the period, an engagement that marked her career.

Later in her career she settled in France, where she has lived for many years, and French-language songs entered her repertoire. Her music and life story were rediscovered by later generations: in 2010 her biography was brought to the screen in a work referred to as "Kor ve Ateş", which attracted considerable attention. In April 2026 she was commemorated together with Erdem Buri at the Nâzım Hikmet Cultural Centre in Kadıköy.