Bülent Ersoy

Bülent Ersoy is a Turkish singer and actress, one of the best-known voices of Turkish classical music, born in Istanbul on 9 June 1952 as Bülent Erkoç. ^{1 2} She has released more than thirty albums, with famous hits including "Ümit Hırsızı" (Hope Thief), "Geceler" (Nights), "Beddua" (Curse), "Maazallah" (God Forbid), "Biz Ayrılamayız" (We Cannot Break Up) and "Sefam Olsun" (I Enjoy Myself). ¹

She underwent gender reassignment surgery in London in 1981 and was banned from Turkish stages throughout the 1980s; on her return in 1988 the public embraced her as "Abla" (Big Sister), and she later became known as "the Diva". ^{1 2} The sources describe her as an icon of the LGBTQ+ community in Turkey. ¹

Bülent Erkoç was born in Istanbul on 9 June 1952, the only son of an urban middle-class family; her father was from Bursa and her mother from Trabzon, and both parents were bankers. ¹ The article notes that neither parent was religious, yet as a child she experienced religious guilt and would recite the adhan hiding under tables at the age of five. ¹

She was introduced to Turkish classical music by her grandparents, who played the zither and the lute, took private lessons from an early age, and after high school studied at the Istanbul Conservatory, with private lessons from prominent classical singers such as Melahat Pars and Rıdvan Aytan. ^{1 2}

In 1970 she won first place in a singing competition organised by the Sunar Concert Bureau, with a cash prize of ₺1,000, and gained her first stage experience as lead singer (assolist) at the Özlem Family Gazino in Üsküdar for three months. ^{1 2} She released her first commercial single in 1971. ¹

In 1974 she began singing at the Maksim Gazino in central Istanbul and released her second classical record, which reportedly broke sales records; the owner Fahrettin Aslan promoted her to lead act, and she began performing under the surname "Ersoy" instead of her birth surname "Erkoç". ¹ She entered cinema in 1976 with the film Sıralardaki Heyecan, followed by further films. ²

Her early albums include Beddua (1980) and Yüz Karası (Disgrace, 1981). After her return she released Biz Ayrılamayız (1988), which featured her famous song "Geceler", Öptüm (1990), Ablan Kurban Olsun Sana (1992), Sefam Olsun (1993), Alaturka 95 (1995), Maazallah (1997) and Aşktan Sabıkalı (2011), the latter including a duet with Tarkan, "Bir Ben Bir Allah Biliyor" (Only I and God Know). ¹

Her album Alaturka 95 opened with recordings of her reciting the adhan in Arabic in the song "Aziz Istanbul", which sparked a fierce debate among Muslim clerics and the wider public both about the use of the adhan in music and about whether she was permitted to recite it as a transgender woman. ¹

She performed on world stages: she was the first Turkish artist to perform at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1983, and on 30 March 1997 she gave a four-hour concert with a 50-piece orchestra at the Olympia in Paris, after which Azerbaijan granted her the title of "State Artist". ^{1 2}

This section should be read as a presentation of differing positions reported by the sources, not as a verdict of the museum.

She began her transition from male to female around 1979 with hormone therapy, drawing massive public attention in conservative Turkish society, and a member of parliament attacked her on the floor and called for her to be investigated. ¹ In August 1980 she exposed her breasts at the İzmir International Fair and was prosecuted and detained for 45 days; she was arrested again for insulting a judge, and in January 1981 was forced to sign a statement banning her from appearing on stage in women's clothing. ^{1 2}

She had her gender reassignment surgery at Charing Cross Hospital in London in April 1981 (the Arabic article gives 14 April 1981), keeping the name "Bülent" despite its being typically masculine. ^{1 2} Her application for official recognition as female was approved by one court after a medical examination, then overturned on appeal; she lost retrials in 1982 and again in 1984, while bans on her performing spread from Istanbul to all Turkish cities and to the state broadcaster TRT, and she left Turkey in 1983, continuing her career for Turkish audiences in West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. ¹

In January 1988 Prime Minister Turgut Özal rolled back many of the Evren-era policies, including her stage ban, and she returned to Turkey; in May 1988 legal reforms allowed people who had undergone reassignment surgery to change their legal gender, and she received her "pink identity card". ^{1 2}

On 13 October 1989 a man shot her five times in İzmir after she twice refused to sing a patriotic folk song he requested; she survived but lost a kidney, and the shooter was sentenced to 16 years in prison. ¹

Her public statements repeatedly sparked controversy: in 2008 the Court of Cassation ordered her to pay ₺15,000 to the politician Deniz Baykal after she accused him of having demanded a fortune in the 1980s to lift her stage ban. ¹ In 2007 her comments on Armenians and Azerbaijanis angered audiences in both Turkey and Azerbaijan; she later said her views had been distorted. ¹ In February 2008 she publicly criticised Turkey's military incursion into northern Iraq and was charged with "turning Turks against compulsory military service"; a court pronounced her not guilty in December 2008. ¹

The article records two marriages, to Cem Adler (1998–1999) and to Armağan Uzun (2007–2008), both attracting media scrutiny because of the large age differences. ¹ The museum does not publish family detail beyond what understanding her public life requires.

The article's Religion section states that she is a practicing Muslim who has believed in Islam since her youth, and that she is known for taking part in Ramadan fasting and Friday prayers. ¹

On her return in 1988 she launched the free "Hasret Konserleri" (Longing Concerts) at venues such as İnönü Stadium and the Abdi İpekçi Arena, drawing huge audiences, and her popularity grew until the public named her "Abla". ¹ She hosted the Bülent Ersoy Show from 1995 and sat on the judging panel of the singing contest Popstar Alaturka (2007–2009) and its 2018 edition. ¹ The sources describe her as one of the most popular singers of Turkish music, whose more than thirty albums have made her name in Turkish music history. ^{1 2}

• The defined sources cited above, registered in data/source/.
• Later translations and edits of this article need periodic review with clear update dates.