Orhan Gencebay (born Orhan Kencebay, 4 August 1944) is a Turkish musician,

bağlama The ''bağlama'' or ''saz'' is a family of plucked string instruments, long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Turkish Arabesque music, Azerbaijani music, Kurdish music, Armenian music and in parts of Syria, I ...

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'' or , "virtuous", Late Latin ''virtuosus'', Latin ''virtus'', "virtue", "excellence" or "skill") is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such a ...

, composer, singer, arranger,

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

, music director, and actor. Gencebay was born in the coastal town of

Samsun Samsun, historically known as Sampsounta ( gr, Σαμψούντα) and Amisos (Ancient Greek: Αμισός), is a city on the north coast of Turkey and is a major Black Sea port. In 2021, Samsun recorded a population of 710,000 people. The cit ...

on 4 August 1944. He is of Crimean Tatar descent. In 1998, he was named a

State Artist State Artist ( tr, Devlet Sanatçısı, also sometimes translated as "National Artist") is an honorary title granted to prominent artists by the government of Turkey for their contributions to the Turkish culture. It was established in 1971 by the ...

of Turkey.

Career

At ages 20 and 22, he passed the

Turkish Radio and Television Corporation The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT; Turkish : ) is the national public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio provider in Turkey. Before the introduction of commercial radio ...

(TRT) auditions and became a resident bağlama player at the network for several months. In 1966, he was one of the primary contestants in National Bağlama Contest with

Arif Sağ Arif Sağ (born 1945) is a Turkish singer, bağlama virtuoso, and leading figure in modern Turkish folk music. A former academic, he was also a member of the Turkish parliament from 1987 to 1991. Early years Arif Sağ was born to a miller at Dall ...

and

Cinuçen Tanrıkorur Cinuçen Tanrıkorur was an oud master, prolific composer of Turkish classical music, musicologist, and music journalist. He served as the director of Turkish Music at Ankara Radio, and taught music at Selçuk University. He was born in Istanbul. ...

, two other contemporary masters of Turkish music. In the late sixties, he collaborated with a wide range of musicians in performances and film music. Between 1966 and 1968, he played bağlama with Arif Sağ in many records with singers such as Muzaffer Akgün, Yıldız Tezcan,

Gülden Karaböcek Saniye Gülden Göktürk, better known as Gülden Karaböcek (born 4 November 1953) is a Turkish fantezi and arabesque singer. Life and career Early years and career beginnings Karaböcek is one of the first names in arabesque and fantasy music ...

, Ahmet Sezgin, Şükran Ay, Sabahat Akkiraz, and Nuri Sesigüzel. Gencebay also took part as a music director in many Turkish films such as Ana, Kuyu, Kızılırmak-Karakoyun. He also collaborated with many musicians from different genres, such as

Erkin Koray Erkin Koray (; born 24 June 1941) is a Turkish musician, electro-baglama player, and active in Anatolian rock. Career Koray has been in the Turkish folk music scene since the late 1950s. In 1957, he and his band began playing covers of Elvis P ...

Omar Faruk Tekbilek Omer Faruk Tekbilek ( tr, Ömer Faruk Tekbilek, born 1951) is a Turkish musician and composer, who plays a wide range of wind, string, percussion and electronic instruments. He has developed a style that builds on traditional Sufi music, but inclu ...

, Ismet Siral, Burhan Tonguc, Ozer Senay, Vedat Yildirimbora,

Neşet Ertaş Neşet Ertaş (1938 – 25 September 2012) was a Turkish folk music singer, lyricist, modern ashik and virtuoso of the traditional Turkish instrument the bağlama. His profession in Turkish is known as ''halk ozanı'', which literally mean ...

, Abdullah Nail Bayşu. He appeared as a baglama performer and a well-known composer in musical societies, besides releasing several singles in genre of traditional Turkish folk music. In 1968, he released his first "free-style" single "Sensiz Bahar Gecmiyor/Basa Gelen Cekilirmis", and was rewarded. During the 1970s, he released many singles in a new genre that is a fusion of traditional Turkish folk music, Turkish classical music, Western classical music, jazz, rock, country, progressive, psychedelic, Indian, Arabic, Spanish, and Greek music styles. Even though some musical societies such as TRT named that kind of World fusion music recordings

Arabesque music Arabesque ( tr, Arabesk) is a style of music created in Turkey. The genre was particularly popular in Turkey from the 1960s through the 2000s. Its aesthetics have evolved over the decades. Its melodies are influenced by espesically Arab Music, ...

, Orhan Gencebay refused the term arabesque, saying it was inadequate to define his style. In 1972, he founded the Kervan Record Company, attracting many other talented musicians such as

Ajda Pekkan Ayşe Ajda Pekkan (; born 12 February 1946) is a Turkish singer. She is known by the title "superstar" in the Turkish media. Pekkan became a prominent figure of Turkish pop music with her songs, in which she tried to create a strong female figure. ...

, Muazzez Abacı, Mustafa Sağyaşar, Ahmet Özhan, Kamuran Akkor,

Semiha Yankı Semiha Yankı (born 15 January 1958) is a Turkish pop music singer, presenter and film actress, best known for representing Turkey for the first time at the Eurovision Song Contest 1975 with the song ''Seninle Bir Dakika Turkey took part i ...

, Samime Sanay, Neşe Karaböcek, Bedia Akartürk, Nil Burak, Ziya Taşkent, Semiramis Pekkan and Ferdi Özbeğen. Throughout his career, Orhan has performed leading roles in 36 movies, has been a composer almost in 90 movies, composed of about a thousand works, released almost 35 singles, 15 albums, and dozens of MCs. His albums sold out over 65 million legal copies.

Discography

Studio albums

Filmography

;Movie soundtracks * ''Kızılırmak-Karakoyun'', 1967 * ''Kozanoğlu'', 1967 * ''Ana'', 1967 * ''Kuyu'', 1968 * ''Kara Gözlüm'', 1970 ;TV shows * '' Orhan Abi Halk Show'', presenter,

TGRT Fox is one of the leading free to air TV networks broadcasting in Turkey. Since July 2012, Fox TV broadcasts in 16:9. History The channel was originally TGRT (acronym in turkish as: 'Türkiye Gazetesi Radyo Televizyonu'; ''Turkey Newspaper Radi ...

, 1996–1997 * '' Popstar Alaturka'', judge,

Star TV Star TV may refer to: * E! (Canadian TV channel) (formerly Star!), a Canadian entertainment news channel * Las Estrellas (Spanish for The Stars), the Mexican television network * Estrella TV (Spanish for Star TV), the American Spanish-language net ...

, 2006–2008 * '' Popstar 2013'', judge, Star TV, 2013

References

External links

*
Turkish Progressive Music and Orhan GencebayOfficial website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gencebay, Orhan 1944 births Living people People from Samsun Turkish male singers Turkish folk musicians Turkish singer-songwriters Turkish folk-pop singers Turkish-language singers State Artists of Turkey Turkish people of Crimean Tatar descent Turkish male film actors Turkish nationalists Nationalist musicians