Zafer Dilek

Zafer Dilek — Biography

Zafer Dilek, whose real name was Zafer Akansoy (30 August 1944, Adana – 11 December 2025, İstanbul), was a Turkish musician, composer, arranger, producer and guitarist. He began making music professionally in the mid-1960s, playing in orchestras. From the late 1970s onwards he worked as a producer, handling production and arrangements — and providing instrumental accompaniment — on albums by many artists, including Selda Bağcan, Sezen Aksu, Bülent Ersoy, Edip Akbayram and Gülden Karaböcek.

In 1971 he released his first 45 rpm single, "İşte Hendek İşte Deve / Sev Kardeşim". In the mid-1970s he released numerous instrumental 45s. In 1973 he released his self-titled debut album, Zafer Dilek, which was met with great acclaim. During this period he formed the group Zafer, Banu Ve Hülya together with Banu Kırbağ and Hülya Kırbağ. After a few singles, the group released the album Zafer, Banu Ve Hülya (1976) and then disbanded. In 1975 he released the single "Golden (Altın Bağlama)" with Arif Sağ, and the songs attracted great interest. Together with his solo singles, he stayed at the top of the charts for months. With his second album, Oyun Havaları, released in 1975, he became one of the year's best-selling artists. Nearly all of the tracks on that album were used as film music in the Kemal Sunal films of the era, such as Kapıcılar Kralı, Süt Kardeşler, Sakar Şakir and Çöpçüler Kralı, bringing him recognition among wide audiences. In 1977 he released his third album, also titled Oyun Havaları. After releasing the album Disco Folk Fasıl 2 in 1979, he put his solo career on hold. He continued to work on other artists' albums throughout the 1980s. In 1989 he formed a duo with Cantekin Arefeoğlu under the name Cantekin & Zafer. That same year the duo released their first and only album, Geçmiş Zaman Olur ki, and between 1989 and 1991 they hosted a music program of the same name on TRT 2. The duo performed together throughout the 1990s.

He continued working on other artists' albums into the 2000s. By blending Western genres such as psychedelia, funk, jazz and blues with Turkish classical and Turkish folk music, he created a style all his own. With the spread of the internet in the 2010s, his albums reached a worldwide fan base. Zafer Dilek, one of the names behind Turkey's most enduring cult instrumental pieces, withdrew from music in the early 2010s.