Zülfü Livaneli (TR)

About

Also known as: Zulfu Livaneli

Zülfü Livaneli is one of Turkey's most wide ranging creative figures, a musician whose catalog stretches to around 300 songs, a ballet, and a rhapsody recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. His songs have been performed by the likes of Joan Baez, Maria Farantouri, and Udo Lindenberg, and he scored the 1982 Palme d'Or winning film Yol. A 1997 Ankara concert drew an estimated 500,000 people, and in 2010 he shared a stage with Bono at U2's first ever Istanbul show to perform "Mothers of the Disappeared". His collaboration with Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis on Güneş Topla Benim İçin became a major hit in Turkey. Livaneli's music carries a strong political current, rooted in years of exile after the 1971 Turkish military memorandum, during which he connected with figures like Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan. His album Nazim Türküsü, setting poems by Nâzım Hikmet to music, stayed on the charts for 48 weeks. Beyond music, he has written novels translated across the globe, directed films screened at Cannes, and served as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador until resigning in 2016 as a political statement.