ISTANBUL — Kayahan, one of Turkey’s most popular singers and songwriters, died here last Friday. He was 66.
The cause was lung cancer, which he had since 1990, Acibadem Maslak Hospital said in a statement.
Kayahan, whose full name was Kayahan Acar, released his first album in 1975 and went on to release nearly two dozen more. Best known for his love songs, he built his musical legacy on his use of idiomatic Turkish to describe emotions. Many of his songs are considered pop classics.
His many hits, which he often sang with Nilufer, one of Turkey’s leading female singers, made him one of the best-selling Turkish musicians of all time. His concerts, including some that were fund-raisers for environmental causes, drew large crowds at home and abroad. One concert, in Ankara, drew more than 170,000 people.
Kayahan was born in Izmir, Turkey, on March 29, 1949. He first won global recognition at the 1986 International Mediterranean Music Contest in Antalya, a Turkish Mediterranean town, and in 1990 he represented Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest with his composition “Gozlerinin Hapsindeyim” (“I Am Entrapped by Your Eyes”). The song did not win, but it became a hit at home.
His last memorable public performance was an open-air Valentine’s Day concert in Istanbul in February. He got out of his sickbed to sing with his wife, Ipek Acar, and Nilufer.
Besides his wife, Kayahan’s survivors include two daughters, Beste and Asli Gonul.
“We are in grief over losing Kayahan, who contributed to Turkish music with countless compositions and marked a generation with his songs,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Twitter.
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