Can Bonomo

Can Bonomo — Biography

Can Bonomo, a Turkish singer-songwriter, poet and actor of Sephardic Jewish descent, was born on 16 May 1987 in İzmir and picked up the guitar at eight. While studying cinema and television at Istanbul Bilgi University he moved into broadcasting, fronting Can Bonomo Show on Radio Class, Number 1 FM and Radio N101 before taking Rock'n Dark Express to MTV Turkey. A class-assignment short film, Hoppala, went viral online and caught director Seray Sever's eye, landing him the lead in the series +18.

Working with producer Can Saban, he put out his debut album Meczup in 2011, then followed it with Aşktan ve Gariplikten (2012), Bulunmam Gerek (2014), Kâinat Sustu (2017), Ruhum Bela (2019) and Kara Konular (2024). Representing Turkey at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku with his own composition Love Me Back, he placed seventh in the final and still holds the distinction of being the country's last entrant.

Beyond music, his output includes three poetry collections -- led by Delirmek Belirmektir (2013), edited by poet Küçük İskender -- a 2024 novel titled Ateşli Silahlar ve Bilardo, and the radio programme O Tarz Mı?, co-hosted with İsmail Türküsev. Honoured with the Golden Butterfly's best-new-soloist award and Radio Boğaziçi's best-new-artist award among others, he married actress Öykü Karayel in 2018 and named their son, born in 2021, Roman.