Mustafa Sandal

Mustafa Sandal — Biography

Mustafa Sandal, born on 11 January 1970 in Istanbul, is a Turkish pop singer, songwriter, composer, record producer and actor, affectionately known to fans as Musti. Alongside his native Turkish he speaks English, French and Italian fluently. His musical style is generally described as a blend of Western pop and Oriental melodic elements, built for the most part on melancholic undertones.

He received much of his education abroad: after attending Dost College in Tarabya and the Collège du Léman in Geneva, he studied at the business and economics faculty of the University of New Hampshire in the United States, before completing his bachelor's degree in management at the American College in London. He entered the music industry in the early 1990s by writing songs for established performers; prominent artists such as Ajda Pekkan, Sezen Aksu and Hakan Peker sang his compositions, giving him an early reputation in the business.

His first studio album, Suç Bende, released in 1994, achieved considerable commercial success and made him a nationally recognized star. Its 1996 successor, Gölgede Aynı, brought him numerous awards, while Aya Benzer, taken from the 1998 album Detay, reached number one on the Turkish charts. After signing with Sony Music he marketed the album Araba around the world, and its title track became a major hit across Europe, greatly expanding his international recognition.

In 2000 he released his fourth studio album, Akışına Bırak; the 2002 record Kop earned him the Best Male Artist award. Under the Universal Music-Polydor label he presented Seven to foreign audiences in 2003, and a year later İste came out in Turkey. His 2005 single İsyankar surpassed 150,000 copies sold in Germany, earning a gold record. He then turned his attention back to the domestic market with Devamı Var in 2007 and Karizma in 2009.

His 2011 duet with Gülben Ergen, Şıkır Şıkır, became the most downloaded song of that year. His tenth studio album, Organik, appeared in 2012, after which he shifted his focus toward singles; 2013's Tesir Altında ended up as the year's best-selling single. Subsequent releases — the 2018 duet Reset with Eypio, the 2019 duet Mod with Zeynep Bastık and the 2020 single Damar — all reached number one on the charts. Over the course of his career he has sold more than 14 million albums worldwide, with some sources putting the total closer to 20 million.

Besides music, he has worked in film, television and advertising. His acting debut came with the 1995 film Bay E; in 2010 he played the character Acar in New York'ta Beş Minare, and in 2011 he took the leading role in the comedy series Başrolde Aşk. He performed voice work for the 2013 animated film Uçaklar and joined the cast of Arif v 216 in 2018. In his private life, he married Bosnian singer Emina Jahović in 2008; the couple had two sons, Yaman and Yavuz, before divorcing in 2018. On 3 June 2022, Sandal married Melisa Sütşurup at the Turkish embassy in Rome.