Yavuz Bingöl

Yavuz Bingöl — Biography

Yavuz Bingöl (born 7 October 1964 in Istanbul) is a Turkish folk singer, songwriter, composer and actor. His father, Yılmaz Bingöl, was a literature teacher, and his mother, Şahsenem Akkaş, is a folk singer known as Şahsenem Bacı. Because of his father's job he attended primary school in several cities, and as a secondary school student he entered the horn and piano department of the Ankara State Conservatory. After his parents divorced he left the conservatory in 1979, moved to İzmir and worked at various jobs for a time.

Returning to music in 1983, he founded the protest music group Umuda Ezgi with his friend Nihat Aydın and served as its lead singer for seven years. He left in 1995 and released his first solo album, Sen Türkülerini Söyle, followed by albums such as Baharım Sensin, Sitemdir, Üşüdüm Biraz, Kül and Ateş. In 2000 he performed at a UNESCO-organised concert in Germany and was named a peace ambassador.

He began acting with the film Cumhuriyet in 1998. His role as Eyüp in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Üç Maymun (Three Monkeys, 2008) earned him a best actor nomination at the Cannes Film Festival. His other credits include 72. Koğuş, Beyaz Melek, Gecenin Kanatları and the series Karagül. He married singer Öykü Gürman in 2015; they divorced in 2016, and in 2024 he married Nilşah Ağaoğlu. In July 2026 he announced that he required urgent surgery and cancelled a concert in Malatya.