Ibrahim Tatlises

İbrahim Tatlıses (born: İbrahim Tatlı, and affectionately known as "Ibo") is one of Turkey's biggest stars. In addition to hosting his own television program, The Ibo Show, on different private TV stations and appearing in several dozen films, Tatlises has been one of Turkey's most prolific recording artists. His twenty-three cassettes include Ayaginda Kundura, which broke all sales records in Turkey in 1978, and Selam Olsun, which focused on traditional folk music played on indigenous instruments.

Born in 1954 in Urfa to a homeless Kurdish family, Tatlises was raised by his mother, following his father's death in 1956. Music provided an outlet for emotional stress. Inspired by Turkish vocalist Yilmaz Guney, he began singing at weddings and other celebrations while still in his teens. Although he released a cassette in 1975, it failed to sell, and Tatlises temporarily left music. Moving to Istanbul with his family in 1977, Tatlises worked as a salesman until recording his second cassette, Ayaginda Kundura. The cassette's success proved to be the launching pad for Tatlises' still-thriving career. A major star during the mid- to late-1980s, he recorded numerous folk dance hits with the accompaniment of an orchestra, and was recognized as a master of the rural "uzun hava" style (marked by lengthy, semi-improvised tunes). Tatlises has been embraced by the Turkish communities in Germany who call him "the voice of the homeland".