Esmeray Diriker

Esmeray was born in 1949 in the Emirgan district of Istanbul. She was of Afro-Turkish descent, as her father was a member of a Moroccan family that settled in Turkey during the Ottoman Empire. Her mother was white. She dropped out of school in 1960 to join the Istanbul community theatre, where she performed in various plays. She later moved on to bigger theatres and starred in several films and TV shows. She also started singing as an amateur in a choir and released her first single in 1973. She became a popular singer in Turkey, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, with songs such as "Unutama Beni", "Gel Tezkere Gel", and "Soruyor Musun?". She was married to Şemi Diriker, a Turkish composer, and used his alias "Erol Tanır" as her stage name. She returned to the theatre in 1995 and continued to act and sing until her death. She died of brain cancer in 2002 at the age of 53. She was buried in the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery in Istanbul. She is remembered as one of the most influential and versatile artists in Turkish culture.