O. Z. Livaneli

Zülfü Livaneli
Born June 20, 1946
Nationality Turkish
Occupation Author, poet, composer, politician, human rights activist
Notable work 'Bliss, My Brother's Story, Serenade for Nadia
Spouse(s) Ulker Livaneli
Children Aylin Livaneli
Awards Barnes & Noble 'Discovery of a Great New Author Award', 2006 (Bliss) - Balkan Literary Award for 'Best Novel', 1997 (The Eunuch of Constantinople) - Yunus Nadi Literary Award for 'Best Novel', 2001 (Memory of Snow)] - Orhan Kemal Literary Award for 'Best Novel', 2009 (Last Island)
Website Livaneli's Official Website

Ömer Zülfü Livaneli, born June 20, 1946, is a prominent Turkish musician, author, poet, and politician.

Livaneli is known for his novels that interweave diverse social and historical backgrounds, figures, and incidents, such as in Bliss which won the Barnes & Noble's Discovery of Great New Writers Award in 2006, and in his critically acclaimed Serenade for Nadia, Leyla's House, and My Brother's Story, which were all translated into 37 languages and won numerous Turkish and International literary awards, and were highly praised by prominent literary critics around the world. His novels have been turned into theatrical movies, stage plays, and operas.

Livaneli was imprisoned several times during the 1971 Turkish coup d'état because of his political views and had to leave Turkey in 1972 and went on exile. He lived in Stockholm, Paris, Athens, and New York where he met and collaborated with artists and intellectuals such as Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, James Baldwin, and Peter Ustinov among others. Livaneli returned to Turkey in 1984.

His works and cultural and political activities and contributions to world peace were recognized by UNESCO in 1995 when he was appointed Goodwill Ambassador to UNESCO—a post he still holds today. He served a term in the Turkish Parliament as well as in the Council of Europe.

Livaneli is as accomplished as a writer as he is as a poet and a songwriter, cultural and political activist. Although he first became known for his contemporary music, Livaneli turned his focus to writing, in the last decades, when he realized that literature was closer to his heart. His first collection of short stories, A Child in Purgatory, published in 1978 was turned into a movie by Swedish and German TV.He is also a prominent social-democrat politician and was a member of the Turkish parliament for one term. Livaneli's novels have been turned into theatrical movies, stage plays, and operas.

Livaneli is known for his contemporary music, in much the same way as Bob Dylan and his contemporaries in the United States were in the 60's. His 1997 Ankara concert was attended by no less than 500 thousand people. His collaborations with Mikis Theodorakis of Greece have been noted as a gesture of bringing together the two countries. Livaneli has been a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador since 1996.

Livaneli has composed some three hundred songs, a rhapsody recorded by London Symphony Orchestra–, and a ballet. His compositions have reached cult status nationwide and have been performed by internationally renowned artists such as Joan Baez, Maria Farantouri, María del Mar Bonet, Udo Lindenberg, Haris Alexiou, Jocelyn B. Smith, and Kate Westbrook. He has also written five plays and thirty film soundtracks. Among these soundtracks are the soundtrack for "Yol" (The Path), directed by Yilmaz Güney and winner of the Golden Palm in Cannes Film Festival, "The Herd", directed by Yılmaz Güney and Zeki Ökten, and "Shirin's Wedding" by German director Helma Sanders-Brahms. His recordings have been published in the USA, Sweden, Germany, Holland and France, and he has given dozens of concerts throughout the world. He has produced albums and performed with Mikis Theodorakis and Maria Farantouri, and he has also collaborated with Manos Hatzidakis, Giora Feidman, Inti-Illimani and Ángel Parra. In 2010, he sang 'Mothers of The Disappeared' with Bono at U2's concert in Istanbul, Turkey, which was U2's first-ever concert in Istanbul. Livaneli has been distinguished with the awards Best Album of the Year (Greece), the Edison Award (Holland), and Best Album of the Year (Music Critics Guild of Germany), and the "Premio Luigi Tenco" Best Songwriter Award, San Remo, Italy, in 1999, among others.

Family And Saz

Livaneli's real name is Ömer Zülfü Livanelioğlu. His father was a judge and later president of the Turkish Supreme Court. He has four brothers and a sister. His mother died at the age of 38, when he was 20, and his father later remarried. When Livaneli finished his school his father was going to buy him a bicycle. Then his father saw a kid with a bicycle getting hit by a truck so his father said "I'm going to get you a saz". Livaneli would hide his saz in his room because he didn't want his friends to know about it. After he got a saz, his father was looking for a teacher for Zülfü; they found a teacher and went to a house to see a man with a long beard play the smaller saz; the cura. Once he lived in Ankara he went to a saz store to get the cura and the man in the store said: "play it for me". Livaneli played it and the man said: "you do know how to play". Them man asked his name and when he answered "Ömer" the man shouted: "Get out my store, get out!" Livaneli said "Did I do something bad=¡? I just said my name". The man shouted. When Livaneli was outside the man said: "Look we don't like that name", Livaneli said: "Who's we", the man said "Alevism". Then the man brought him to the store and Livaneli said: "I have two names. My other name is Zülfü". The man said: "Use the Zülfü name". Livaneli said: "Okay". Livaneli said in one Turkish show in 2011: "If I had not bought the saz I wouldn't have known about Turkey." His wife's name is Ulker and his daughter's name is Aylin; she was born in Ankara, Turkey. (Birthday: August 28, 1966) Ulker is a translator.

The First Album And How He Became Famous

Livaneli was trying to go to Europe because he went to jail two times. For his first album, he didn't use his current name, Zülfü Livaneli. Instead, he used the name "Ozanoglu". Yet he did not get to the point where he wanted to be, therefore, he started using his current name, Zülfü Livaneli, on his new album, Chants Révolutionnaires Turcs (Turkish Revolutionary songs) in 1971 or 1973. When he was in Europe, his brother Ferhat informed him about how his songs were being sung by everyone in Turkey while they were protesting the government. Livaneli was in shock as he did not even know how the people in Turkey knew him, when he asked this, Ferhat's answer was "They know you." . Livaneli made an album called "Nazim Türküsü" the album was turning the well renowned poet Nazim Hikmet's poems to music and it became and stayed at the top hit on albums album for 48 weeks. In 1986, the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis met Livaneli, they then proceeded to make an album called Güneş Topla Benim İçin (Gather The Sun For Me). After when the album was released in Turkey it was one of the peek of the Turkish music. At that time Livaneli met Ahmet Kaya which is another valuable folk singer, their political views about peace were similar. They were both strong and uniting figures. 1980s were the years Livaneli reached his first peak. London Orchestra performed with Livaneli in 1998, and in 1999, UNESCO assisted Livaneli on the release of that album. Now Livaneli has millions of fans In Turkey and outside of Turkey.

The Ankara Concert 1997

Livaneli had a concert in Ankara with 500.000+ people attending it. His musical performance included:

Political life

Apart from his remarkable career as an author and poet, Livaneli was highly influential in Turkish politics over the last thirty years. In the 2002 Turkish elections, Livaneli was elected to the Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) as a Deputy for Istanbul for the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP). Livaneli resigned from the CHP in early 2005, however, in protest at "CHP's non-democratic and authoritarian system of politics",[1][2]

During his political career in Ankara, Livaneli presented a legislative proposal for amending Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. The amendment proposed that the concept of "Turkishness" should be replaced with that of the "Turkish nation" which would put an emphasis on the concept of "nation" which, as formulated by the Republic, unites under its umbrella people of different origins. With this amendment, there would no more be a stress on the notion of Turkish race.

Besides this, in 2006 he presented a proposal to the National Assembly demanding that a commission be established in order to investigate the reasons for increasing violence and fanaticism among the youth; his proposal was accepted.

Following his resignation from the party membership, Livaneli continued in his position in the Grand National Assembly as an independent until the end of that term. He did not take part in the 2007 Turkish elections and appears politically inactive. He has since concentrated on his art and books.

Livaneli was a daily contributor as a columnist in the newspapers Sabah, Vatan, and Milliyet.

Songs Performed By Livaneli

And More Songs.

Films

Livaneli directed four feature films: Iron Earth, Copper Sky, Mist, Shahmaran and Veda. His film Iron Earth, Copper Sky was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.[3] Veda that based on the life of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is the last film written and directed by Zülfü Livaneli.

One of the most acclaimed Turkish films of the decade – and one of the first narrative films to tackle the highly charged subject of honor killings – Bliss was originally adopted from Livaneli's best-seller novel. The film, reviewed by New York Times as a consistently gripping, visually intoxicating film and standing as a landmark of contemporary Turkish cinema.

Books

"Gözüyle Kartal Aclayan Yazar Yaşar Kemal (The Author who hunt eagle with eyes) 2016

Partial discography

See also

References

  1. ↑ Two Turk MPs resign from their parties, highlighting tensions
  2. ↑ Zülfü Livaneli CHP'den istifa etti (Turkish)
  3. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Iron Earth, Copper Sky". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
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