Nuriye Füsun Önal (born 11 March 1947) is a Turkish pop singer,

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, and writer.

Biography

Önal's father was a soldier in the

Turkish army The Turkish Land Forces () is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for Army, land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Significant campaigns since the ...

; her mother was a housewife. Füsun grew up in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

. During her childhood, she played the

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

and

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

. She also had private

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

lessons, and studied

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

. Önal graduated from the

TED Ankara College TED Ankara College Foundation Schools is a group of private schools in Turkey. It consists of kindergarten, elementary, middle and high schools. Its İncek Campus, considered sizeable with 141,000 square meters of enclosed and over 309,000 square ...

and studied English

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

Ankara University Ankara University () is a public university, public research university in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in Turkey after the History of the Republic of Turkey, formation of the Turkish republ ...

. During her college years, she sang with the Erol Pekcan Jazz Orchestra. Subsequently, she moved to Istanbul and sang

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

in İstanbul's well-known venues. Önal performed at youth concerts, and produced radio and

television program A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via Terrestrial television, over-the-air, Satellite television, satellite, and cable te ...

s. Additionally, Füsun performed in Australia, England, Italy, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan; went on 16 tours in Turkey; and acted in numerous voice roles. Önal was the host of the popular

television show A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

''Newlywed Game-Evcilik Oyunu'' for about 450 broadcasts on Turkish TV channel

Show TV Show TV is a Turkish free-to-air national television channel, established in 1991 by Erol Aksoy, Dinç Bilgin, Haldun Simavi and Erol Simavi, owned by the Can Holding. History The channel replaces Cine5's now-defunct frequencies, and it was ...

. She also acted in

movie A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

s, mainly portraying a singer while performing her own songs. She has played the lead in theatre performances and

musicals Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

all over Turkey. Önal has recorded music for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

Odeon Records Odeon Records is a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. The label's name and logo come from the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris. History Straus a ...

Sony Records Sony Records was a record label founded by R&B duo Ike & Tina Turner in 1963. It was not affiliated with Sony Group Corporation. Ike Turner produced singles by members of the Kings of Rhythm and the Ikettes on Sony Records. Records on the la ...

, Discotur, Melody, and Ronnex Records, recording 12 albums to date. She has earned

golden records Golden Records was a record label based in New York City. It was conceived and founded in 1948 by the Grammy Award-winning children's music producer Arthur Shimkin, then a new recruit in the S&S business department. Shimkin went on to found S ...

four times: for her songs Senden Başka, Oh Olsun, and Ah Nerede, and her album Alo Ben Füsun. During the 2000s, she released a number of compilation CD's. Önal is also a

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

, staging 14 personal photograph exhibitions from 1990 to 2000. In 1990, Önal began a new career as an

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

under the patronage of Turkish writer

Aziz Nesin Aziz Nesin (; born Mehmet Nusret, 20 December 1915, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire – 6 July 1995, Izmir , Turkey) was a Turkish writer, humorist and the author of more than 100 books. Born in a time when Turks did not have official surnames, ...

. She subsequently signed a contract with Turkish

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

İnkılap Kitapevi. Thus far, Önal has written 20 books, including: , , , , , , , , , and . Currently, Önal performs at the Theatre Kedi, portraying

Countess Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Rosina Almaviva in ''

The Marriage of Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienn ...

''.

Discography

LP *Alo Ben Füsun (1975) *Birtanem...Beni Hatırlar mısın (1977) *Yeni Bir Gün Başlıyor (1981) (With Ahmet Tuğsuz) *Saat 12...Daha Sabaha Çok Var (1982) *Müzik Benim Dünyam (1985) CD *Kuşadası Altın Güvercin Yarışma Şarkıları (1987) *Nasıl Yani (Ali) (Şahin Özer-1992) *Ah Nerede (Sony/Odeon) *Bak Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş-1 (mix) (Odeon) *Bak Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş-2 (mix) (Odeon) *Bak Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş-3 (mix) (Odeon) *Bak Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş-4 (mix) (Odeon) *Söz:Çiğdem Talu (karma) (Ossi Müzik) *Müzik: Selmi Andak-1 (mix) (Ossi Müzik) *Müzik: Selmi Andak-2 (mix) (Ossi Müzik) *Bir Zamanlar-1 (mix) (Ossi Müzik) *Bir Zamanlar-2 (mix) (Ossi Müzik) *Bir Zamanlar-3 (mix) (Ossi Müzik) *Re-Mix (mix) (Ossi Müzik)

Filmography

*1973: Hamsi Nuri *1974: Aç Gözünü Memet *1974: Evet Mi Hayır Mı *1975: Tamam Mı Devam Mı *1988: 077 Hızır - Acil Servis *1993: İnsanlık Hali *2007: Senden Başka

Published Books

*Aşk Çiş Gibidir Gelince Tutamazsın *Aslında Hüzündü Hepsinin Yaşadığı *Ay Işığında Yıkanan Vücutlar *Başkaları da Hayatı Deniyor *Bay G *Benim Adım Aşk-Sevi *Bir Kadın Ve Yedi Öfkeli Adam *Deja Vu Sendromu *Gezikolik *Hayat Bir Utanmaz Kitap *Hayatı Denedim *Hayatımdan Sayfalar-Şöhretistan *Herkese Özgürlük Annne, Ama Bana da... *Matrak Sultan *Ruhsar Hanım *Sevişmenin Rengi *Silikon Hayatlar *Sinirli Vatandaş *Valla Kız Değilim *Var Mısın Benimle Uçmaya

References

* Who is who database
''Biography of Füsun Önal''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Onal, Fusun 1947 births Actresses from Istanbul Living people Turkish women pop singers Turkish pop singers Turkish women jazz singers Turkish jazz singers Turkish film actresses Turkish stage actresses Singers from Istanbul Turkish mandolinists Turkish pianists Turkish women pianists Turkish accordionists Turkish women accordionists