Zülfü Livaneli

He returned to Turkey in 1984. In 1995, UNESCO appointed him as a Goodwill Ambassador in recognition of his cultural works, political activities, and contributions to world peace. He resigned from this position in 2016 in protest against what he described as the damage by the Turkish State to the historic Kurdish Old Town of Diyarbakir. Livaneli served as a member of the Grand National Assembly and as part of the Turkish Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Livaneli's family is of Georgian descent. His father, Mustafa Sabri Livanelioğlu, held various judicial positions before serving as the First Deputy President of the Court of Cassation from September 1977 to July 1983. Livaneli has four brothers and one sister. When he was 20, his mother died at the age of 38, after which his father remarried. In 1964, Livaneli married translator Ülker Tunçay. They have a daughter, Aylin, who was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1966.

Livaneli released his debut album under the pseudonym "Ozanohad Glu". He later adopted his current name, Zülfü Livaneli, which appeared on his subsequent album, Chants Révolutionnaires Turcs (Turkish revolutionary songs), released in 1973. While in Europe, Livaneli learned from his brother Ferhat that large crowds in Turkey were singing his songs during protests. In response, Livaneli created an album titled Nazim Türküsü, setting his music to poems by Nâzım Hikmet. The album remained on the music charts for 48 weeks. Livaneli's musical catalog includes approximately 300 songs, a ballet, and a rhapsody recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. His work has been interpreted by international performers including Joan Baez, Maria Farantouri, and Udo Lindenberg. As a film composer, he has scored thirty productions, notably the 1982 Palme d'Or winner Yol and Helma Sanders-Brahms's Shirin's Wedding. A 1997 performance in Ankara is cited as one of his largest live events, with an estimated attendance of 500,000. In 2010, he sang "Mothers of the Disappeared" with Bono at U2's concert in Istanbul, Turkey, the band's first concert in the city. Livaneli has received awards including the Best Album of the Year Award (Greece), the Edison Award (Holland), Best Album of the Year (Music Critics Guild of Germany), and the Premio Luigi Tenco Best Songwriter Award at the San Remo in 1999. Livaneli's music achieved significant popularity in the 1980s. In 1986, he met the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. Together they produced the album Güneş Topla Benim İçin (Gather the Sun for Me). After its release in Turkey, the album peaked in the Turkish music market. At that time, Livaneli met Ahmet Kaya, another folk singer. The London Symphony Orchestra performed with Livaneli in 1998 and, in 1999, UNESCO assisted Livaneli in releasing that album.

In addition to his career as an author and poet, Livaneli was active in Turkish politics. In the 1994 Turkish local elections, he was a candidate for mayor of Istanbul for the Social Democratic Populist Party, but was not elected. In the 2002 Turkish general election, Livaneli was elected to the Grand National Assembly as a deputy for Istanbul for the Republican People's Party (CHP). He resigned from the CHP in early 2005, in protest against "the CHP's non-democratic and authoritarian system of politics." Livaneli served one term in the Turkish parliament. During his political career, Livaneli presented a legislative proposal to amend Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, proposing that the concept of "Turkishness" be replaced with that of the "Turkish nation" to promote a more inclusive concept of national identity. The amendment was intended to reduce tension associated with the concept of the Turkish race. In 2006, he presented a proposal to the National Assembly to establish a commission to investigate the reasons for increasing violence and fanaticism among youth, which was accepted. Following his 2005 resignation from the party, Livaneli continued serving in the Grand National Assembly as an independent until the end of that term. He did not participate in the 2007 Turkish elections and has since focused on his artistic and literary work. Livaneli has also worked as a columnist for the newspapers Sabah, Vatan, Milliyet, and Cumhuriyet.