Yıldız Tilbe

Yıldız Tilbe
Tilbe performing at a concert in Istanbul, July 2014
Background information
Birth name	Yıldız Tilbe
Born	(1966-07-16) July 16, 1966 (age 50) İzmir, Turkey
Origin	Kurdish
Genres	Pop-folk
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, entertainer
Years active	1991–present
Website	http://www.yildiztilbe.com.tr

Yıldız Tilbe (born 16 July 1966) is a Turkish pop folk singer and one of the best-selling musical artists in Turkey, known especially for her eastern-infused ballads.

Her father is from Ağrı and her mother is from Tunceli.

While performing at a nightclub in 1991 she met Sezen Aksu. For some time thereafter she worked as a backing singer and collaborated with several other artists on their music projects.

Tilbe released her debut album Delikanlım in 1994. She writes and composes most of her songs and also produces for other artists, including Tarkan, Funda Arar, Demet Akalin and Gulben Ergen.

After the 2006 Israeli airstrike on Lebanon, during a television appearance Tilbe said "May God bring down one disaster after another upon Israel," to which the studio audience answered “Amen.”

In response to Israeli airstrikes on Gaza in early July 2014, Tilbe is reported to have said on social media site Twitter: "God bless Hitler, it was even too few what he did to the Jews, he was right" and "The Jews will be destroyed by Muslims, in the name of Allah, not much time left for it to be done".

Her tweets received support from Melih Gökçek, the mayor of Ankara, who is a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party and himself a controversial figure. Later she tweeted that did not mean to praise Hitler and that she also has some Jewish friends and acquaintances.