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İbrahim Tatlıses

İbrahim Tatlıses (born İbrahim Tatlı, affectionately known as İbo) is a singer of mixed Arab and Kurdish background born in the town of Şanlıurfa in Turkey. Tatlıses is one of Turkey's most prolific recording artists. His twenty-three albums include Ayağında Kundura (which broke all sales records in Turkey in 1978), and Selam Olsun (which focused on traditional folk music played on indigenous instruments). He hosts a popular television program İbo Show and has appeared in several dozen films. In recent years he has become more popular in the Middle East as well as countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany.

Biography

Born in Şanlıurfa to a homeless family in January 1 1952, Tatlıses was raised by his mother and his friend Naim Celik. His father died, when he was a young child. Music provided an outlet for emotional stress. He began singing at weddings and other celebrations while still in his teens. Although he released an album in 1975, it failed to sell, and Tatlıses temporarily left music. Moving to Istanbul with his family in 1977, he then worked as a salesman until recording his second album, Ayağında Kundura. The success of this album proved to be the launching pad for Tatlıses. An important star during the 1980s, he recorded numerous folk dance hits with the accompaniment of an orchestra and was recognized as a master of the rural uzun hava style, marked by lengthy, semi-improvised tunes. Ibrahim Talises has worked with the best directors, and best Arabic singers like Omar Elmir (Ibn Yaol) from Lebanon.

In December 2003, Tatlıses was criticized when he sang a folk song in Kurdish on the İbo Show. The incident sparked protests and boycotts by Turkish nationalists and an assassination attempt.

Tatlıses initially stood as an MP candidate in the July 2007 Turkish elections and lost. In March 2008 he released the album Neden ("Why").