Ebru Gündeş

Biography

Ebru Gündeş (Turkish pronunciation: [ebˈɾu ɟynˈdeʃ], born 12 October 1974) is a Turkish pop-folk and arabesque singer, actress, and television personality.

Career

Her debut album, Tanrı Misafiri×Tanrı Misafiri1993 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1Unutma Sakın4:232Demir Attım5:003Tanrı Misafiri4:134Yaralım3:245Gel Diyemem4:196Yalan mıydı?4:527Aman Kimseler Duymasın4:128Her Şey Seni Hatırlatıyor4:339Kurşun Yerine4:4710Beni mi Buldun?4:1911Şimdi Git Güle Güle4:5712Hayret Birşeysin3:2113Güller Arasından3:2314Potpori (Yüce Dağ Başında, Menekşe Kokulu Yârim)5:29, was released in 1993, and was successful, selling 1,250,000 copies nationwide. At this stage, she was regarded as a very sweet and innocent-looking girl, slim, dressed in white and with a habit of raising one eyebrow. She was seen on billboards all over Istanbul. Her subsequent albums have also been successful. She won the best Turkish Classical Music Artist award of Kral TV in 1994, 1995 and 1996.
Gündeş released her fifth studio album Sen Allah'ın Bir Lütfusun in 1998. On 5 April 1998, the album ranked among the top 10 on MÜ-YAP''s list of 50 best-selling albums, and on 25 April and 2 May it rose to the second position on the list of pop albums sold by Megavizyon and Mephisto music markets. For the album's first music video, Gündeş was accompanied by the Nigerian footballer and Fenerbahçe S.K. defender Uche Okechukwu. She has had serious health problems. She suffered from a cerebral haemorrhage in December 1999, while recording Dön Ne Olur. After two operations, Ebru eventually returned to full health. Dön Ne Olur was one of the best-selling albums of all time in Turkey. In November 2001, she released the album Ahdım Olsun×Ahdım Olsun2001 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Ahdım Olsun5:472Sensizim5:293Akıllı Ol3:384Seni Seviyorum5:075Telafi4:156Senin Olmaya Geldim4:317Sevdim İnkar Etmedim3:478Sabahlar Uzak6:499Kaybedenler5:5810Allah Seninle Olsun (Sonun Olurum)3:5611Vazgeçmem4:0412Benim Dünyam5:1113Bir İnat Uğruna Muallaktayım5:01. It was followed by Şahane (2003), Bize de Bu Yakışır (2004), Kaçak (2006) and Evet (2008).
Ebru Gündeş then released another album, Beyaz×Beyaz9 February 2011 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Ağlamayacağım5:042Vatan3:533Ferman3:504Beyaz4:315Hayrandım4:206Bir Gün Olacak3:567Yazık5:378Cumartesi4:089Hiç Bir Zaman4:1410Aldırma3:3711Severek Öleceğim3:1412Kime Ne3:52 ("White") in 2011. The album was unsuccessful, selling just over 100,000 throughout the year. In 2012, she released the album 13.5, which consisted only of covers of old popular songs. The album reached average sales in the country. However, the general perception of music critics had been one of disappointment, as the album consisted solely of covers and was therefore considered to be 'repetition'. In October 2014, her fourteenth studio album, Araftayım×Araftayım16 October 2014 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Oku Canıma2Her Durumda3Araftayım4Müstehak5Nerdeydin6Aynı Aşklar7Bir Devir Bitti8Aramızda9Aşkın Huzurunda10Soğuk Odalar11Mecbursun12Üflediler Söndüm13Sor Bakalım, was released. The album sold more than 100,000 copies.
Gündeş's fifteenth studio album Âşık was released by Blue Music on 31 January 2019. According to the data provided by Apple Music, it became the best-selling and most-downloaded album in Turkey on its day of release. The song "Aşık" also broke the record of the most downloaded song on its day of publication in Turkey. Three separate music videos were release for the songs "Âşık", "Gidiniz" and "Çabuk Unutma".

Television career

Ebru Gündeş has made hundreds of television appearances in Turkey as a singer and as an actress in the comedy series İmkansız Aşk (Impossible Love). She was also the host of Mega Show, which was one of the most popular television shows in Turkey. Every week Ebru was joined by a variety of other Turkish singers, most notably her long-time friends Serdar Ortaç and İbrahim Tatlıses. The show featured Ebru singing her own songs, singing classic songs and singing duets with other singers. She then appeared in the hugely popular singing contest Popstar Alaturka as a judge alongside some of Turkey's most popular singers, namely Bülent Ersoy and Orhan Gencebay and TV presenter Armağan Çağlayan. Just before leaving Popstar Alaturka, she released the album Evet (Yes).
In 2010, Gündeş who was presenting a television program on TGRT at the time, repeatedly performed a song based on verses from Ataol Behramoğlu's poem Yaşadıklarımdan öğrendiğim bir şey var, without asking permission or paying for the copyright. Behramoğlu later filed a lawsuit against Gündeş, the program's producer and broadcaster for violating his rights, asking for compensation due to material and moral damages.
She was also a judge on O Ses Türkiye (Turkish version of The Voice) from 2013 to 2016, and again from 2021 to 2022.

Personal life

At the age of 16 Gündeş married Hamdi Vardar. In 2002 she married, Ömer Durak, a lawyer. Her third marriage was to Iranian Azerbaijani businessman Reza Zarrab in 2010. They have one daughter. Reza Zarrab was arrested on 17 December 2013 by Istanbul police in light of a corruption scandal, which involved some members of the AKP being accused of giving bribes totaling 63 million dollars to government ministers or their proxies. Ebru Gündeş reportedly filed for divorce in September 2016, but they reconciled shortly afterwards. In April 2021, Gündeş again filed for divorce. Their divorce was finalized on 7 May 2021. Gündeş married businessman Murat Osman Özdemir in February 2024 in Dubai. They divorced in September 2025.