Artun Ertürk

Who is Artun Ertürk?

Artun Ertürk is a Turkish musician, composer, lyricist and producer, best known as the founder of the Turkish band Diplomatik Rock Opera and the songwriter of famous Turkish singer Pamela Spence's many songs including national hits "İstanbul" and "Ayrılamayız Biz".

Artun Ertürk started to play the guitar when he was eleven years old. His first guitar was a Bulgarian-made acoustic one, which was a present from his elder brother, who also taught him his first chords. Then, he continued learning how to play it by himself, playing by the ear. Although professional-wise there are no musicians in Ertürk's family, his grandfather, mother and brother as well as his aunt were very musical people, playing instruments and singing songs.

Ertürk then learned how to play the classical and the jazz guitars, the latter initially inspired by hearing famous French guitarist and bassist Biréli Lagrène, who came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt-influenced style on the classical guitar, as well as for being a jazz fusion virtuoso on the electric guitar. Ertürk started playing the electric guitar in 1986 for the first time, after one of his friends who immigrated to England gave his guitar to him as a present.