İsmail Türüt

İsmail Türüt — Biography

İsmail Türüt is a folk singer of the eastern Black Sea tradition, known for songs delivered in the regional dialect and for a long-running entertainment show on television. He is counted among the five performers who give the most concerts at home and abroad, is known for his conservative-nationalist stance, and still performs on stage.

His career began in 1982 with the album Laz Uşağı. He was first loved in his own region; in 1998 he signed with İbrahim Tatlıses's label İdobay and released Oflu ile Bayburtlu, which brought him listeners beyond the Black Sea. In later years albums such as Çay Güzeli, Hamsi, Karadeniz Sofrası, Dünya Tatlısı and Kırktan Sonra took his total past thirty, and after the 1990s he made joint cassettes with Erkan Ocaklı, Ozan Arif and Cengiz Kurtoğlu. He also turned to television, presenting Türüt Show on Kanal 7, TGRT, Flash TV and other channels as well as Fıkralarla Türkiye, and playing the lead in the series Tirvana and N'aber Bacanak. In 2000 he won "Best Male Folk Music Artist" at the 6th Kral TV Video Music Awards.

In May 2001 he was shot in the leg while singing on stage. He stood trial over the song Plan Yapmayın Plan, with lyrics by Ozan Arif, which was alleged to praise the defendants in the Hrant Dink assassination, and was acquitted on 29 December 2009; he was also acquitted in a case over a campaign song he made for a Rize mayoral candidate in the 1994 local elections. Born in the village of Ambarlık in Rize, he was the second child in a family of four children.