Muhabbet

Muhabbet — Biography

Murat Ersen, known professionally as Muhabbet (born 3 August 1984 in Cologne), is the grandson of a Turkish guest worker who emigrated from Eskişehir to Germany in the 1960s. He began making music at home around age eleven with his older brother Levent Ersen (stage name $iki Pa!), and in 2003, observing that fourth-generation migrant children no longer understood Turkish well, decided to write German-language arabesque songs about love.

He describes his blend of arabesque-tinged oriental pop and contemporary R&B as "R'n'Besk". Posting his own German arabesque tracks online in 2004 drew attention from both Germany's Turkish community and German youth; in 2006 he was invited to Turkey by then-foreign minister Abdullah Gül, and in 2007 he performed for 3,800 people at a festival with the backing of President Horst Köhler and met foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Writing lyrics in both German and Turkish, he became known as the "Turk who shook Europe".

In 2009 he released both a German- and a Turkish-language album, plus the Turkish single "Sen İstedin". Beyond music, he also stepped into acting with a role in the 2008 film "Evet, ich will!".