Melike Demirağ

Melike Demirağ — Biography

Ayşe Melike Demirağ was born on 3 June 1956 in Istanbul to film producer Turgut Demirağ and jazz singer Rüçhan Çamay, and was educated at Üsküdar Türk Kız Koleji. She entered cinema in 1971 with Üç Kızgın Cengaver, directed by her father; in 1974, at eighteen, she shared the lead role with Yılmaz Güney in his film Arkadaş and sang its title song, which became one of the era's most beloved recordings. She married composer Şanar Yurdatapan, whom she met on set, in 1976, and the couple had two children, Zeynep Ferah and Can. In 1978 she played Berivan, a mute Kurdish girl, in Güney's Sürü; the role brought her Turkey's SİYAD best actress award and, 31 years later, the Golden Orange award, while the film itself won the Golden Leopard at Locarno. After the 1980 coup she spent roughly twelve years in political exile in Germany, recording a joint record there with Şivan Perwer, and in 1983 she and her husband were stripped of their Turkish citizenship. She returned to Turkey in 1991, had her citizenship restored in 1992, divorced Yurdatapan and later married Orhan Çetin, and continued acting in productions such as Yeditepe İstanbul and Gönderilmemiş Mektuplar while releasing further albums, including Geri Dönüşüm in 2009.