Tülay Özer

Tülay Özer — Biography

Tülay Özer was a Turkish singer who topped the charts in the mid-1970s with songs that sat between Anatolian pop and arabesque. She is remembered above all for İkimiz Bir Fidanız and for Büklüm Büklüm, a Sezen Aksu composition. She was the elder sister of the singer Zerrin Özer and died in Istanbul on 1 May 2026, aged 79.

The eldest of four sisters, she was born in the Kemaliye district of Erzincan, worked as an accountant by profession and entered professional music in 1972. Her first single came out in 1974; her real breakthrough was İkimiz Bir Fidanız on the Kent Plak label in 1975, which earned her a Golden Record Award at her first stage appearance, at the İzmir Fair. Deli Etme Beni Aşk kept her in the spotlight in 1976, and she sang songs by composers such as Hakkı Bulut and Bora Ayanoğlu in Esin Engin arrangements. Her first LP, Tülay, appeared in 1976 and the second, Seven Ağlatılmaz, in 1978; Büklüm Büklüm took her to the top of the record charts for the last time.

As her fame faded in the 1980s, her sister Zerrin rose, and Tülay kept supporting her. When Kalbimdeki Sevgili (1981), released on Yaşar Plak, fell short of expectations she took a long break; she later released Özleyiş (1989) and Olmalı Olacak (1993), which found little response. Her last work as a performer was the duet "Kolay Vazgeçmeyi Öğrendim" with Kıraç on the 2010 album Her Devrin Devleri. She was buried at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery.