Serkan Nihat’s directorial debut film Exodus has won the Best Drama Feature 2024 award at this year’s London Independent Film Festival (LIFF). Set in Turkiye, the hard hitting migration drama received a standing ovation when it premiered at the festival earlier this month. Inspired by the global refugee crisis, Exodus homes in on two Turkish […]
From television cooks Nigella Lawson and Sabrina Ghayour-Lynn to food writer Diana Henry and the Stylist Magazine, Turkish culinary expert Özlem Warren has got everyone raving about her brand new cookbook Sebze, which is now available worldwide. ‘Sebze’ translates as vegetables in Turkish and this gorgeous new hardback features a treasure trove of vegetarian recipes, […]
The foodies among you may well have clocked the second series of the BBC’s Young MasterChef show, where nine young budding chefs were aiming to show off their culinary skills to win the coveted title. Chef, author and YouTube food star Hasan Semay, or Big Has as he is more commonly known, joined the show […]
Six years ago, London staged a tribute night to Barış Manço – one of Turkiye’s greatest artists – where some of the capital’s leading musicians performed a selection of his greatest hits. The sell-out event at the Jazz Café proved the enduring appeal of Manço, who sadly died of a heart attack in 1999 aged […]
With another year wrapping up, we take a look at 2023’s most streamed Turkish artists, albums and tracks on the world’s biggest music streaming platform Spotify. Music streaming sites such as Spotify, Soundcloud and YouTube, together with social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, have opened the doors wider than ever for Turkish musicians […]
In every community there are hidden talents, not least in the British Turkish community. We recently discovered the immensely gifted multi-instrumentalist Salahi ‘Sal’ Ormandji. This Turkish Cypriot from Islington, North London, has been performing for over 35 years, and, at the tender age of 51-years-old, has just released his first ever solo album Sazmania – […]
Derya Yıldırım and Grup Şimşek are a firm favourite on the indie music circuit with their infectious Anatolian psych-pop groove that’s heavily influenced by the likes of Selda Bağcan, Aşık Mahzuni Şerif, and Barış Manço. Music anthropologist, DJ and friend Sebastian “Booty” Carrell (B-music) introduced lead singer and bağlama player Derya Yıldırım to Graham Mushnik […]
Disney+ has lost tens of thousands of subscribers after cancelling its plans to air a television drama series about Atatürk. Turks worldwide have reacted furiously to the cancellation news, ostensibly due to American anti-Turkish lobbying, but was the reaction justified? Last year, Turks were thrilled to learn that Disney+ (Disney Plus) was planning to produce […]
The term ‘musical legend’ is overused, but in the case of Erkin Koray it is entirely justified. The free-spirited, guitar-playing singer-songwriter is one Turkiye’s most significant artists of the past 60 years; a pioneer of Anatolian and psychedelic rock, the composer of some of Turkiye’s most memorable hits and, together with Orhan Gencebay, the inventor […]
Musically impossible to pigeon-hole, Lalalar’s sound is a futuristic mash-up straddling punk rock, Anatolian psychedelic funk, and dirty electronic beats. Iggy Pop is a fan, describing them as “Turkey’s most innovative alternative artists”. The band’s name is adapted from the Ottoman word ‘Lālā’ (meaning “wise man”), used to describe the teacher of Sultans. It’s an […]
