Yildiz Tilbe

Yildiz Tilbe (born 16 July 1966) is a Turkish pop music singer of Kurdish-Zaza descent and one of the best-selling musical artists in Turkey, known especially for her eastern-infused ballads and 90s Turkish Pop Music, when it was its peak. Yildiz Tilbe was born in the Gültepe district of Konak, Izmir, and is of Kurdish and Zaza origin. She is the youngest of her parents' six children. She was known by the nickname "Yadigar" within her family. Her mother Altun was from Tunceli, while her father Ali was from Agri. Her father Ali Tilbe was a seasonal worker. She attended the Mustafa Rahmi Balaban School but left after the second grade, and started singing from an early age. At the age of 18 she got married to Güngör Karahan. From this marriage she has a daughter named Sezen Burçin. After 5 years the couple divorced. She then started singing in various nightclubs in Izmir. She began her career in 1990 in a nightclub owned by Cengiz Özseker. While performing at th nightclub in 1991 she met Sezen Aksu who asked Tilbe to become her backing vocalist. After accepting her offer Tilbe moved to Istanbul and worked for Sezen Aksu for a while. After parting her way from Aksu, Tilbe started performing at Istanbul's nightclub. She subsequently got an offer from Cem Özer to perform as a soloist in the program Laf Lafi Açiyor. With her appearance on this show, she became famous and release her first album Delikanlim in 1994 which became a hit in Turkey. In addition to her singing career, she started songwriting. In her songs, she addresses subjects such as sadness, love and separation and primarily uses romantic themes in her songs and compositions. In her romantic songs, she uses an imaginative and powerful language. Tilbe has composed many songs for several other artists and collaborated with them on their music projects. About her songs Tilbe said: "My songs do not just tell my story, they tell everybody's story. That is why people listen to them. There is Yildiz who sings these songs, and there is someone who listens to them. I can not even listen to some of my songs because they are really painful. Also I'm a person who has something to say not only in those songs but in other ways. I'm not a person limited to just about 40 songs..." In 1996, the anti-narcotics police found some cannabis at her house. Tilbe was held in custody and was released after three days. To get rid of her addiction to cannabis, she was hospitalized at Balikli Greek Hospital for a while. At the same year she released her new album Askperest. In the late 1990s, she worked at various nightclubs in Istanbul, Bursa and Eskisehir. In 2001, the release of her new album Gülüm brought her back to the stardom, which was followed by the album Haberi Olsun in 2002. In 2003, all of the songs on her album Yürü Anca Gidersin became hits in Turkey. Throughout her career, she has won many awards and received various nominations.