Hozan Dîno

About Hozan Dîno

Hozan Dîno is a Kurdish singer-songwriter from Ardahan Province in northeastern Turkey and one of the most popular Kurmanji voices of his generation. He was born Yusuf Şahin in 1969 in a village in Ardahan, and went to school there before studying further in Gümüşhane and Istanbul. He took up the saz as the instrument to accompany his own singing.

In 1995 he was detained for political reasons during the Kurdish conflict. In 1998 he left Turkey and applied for asylum in the Netherlands, where he has lived ever since, and it was there that he built his professional career. He writes both the words and the music of his songs. His debut album, Lê Dayê, gave him his first hit in the early 2000s, and albums such as Çû and Dîsa Çû brought him a large following in Bakur and across the European diaspora.

His best-known song, Oy Yarê, has stayed a favourite since its release, alongside Çû, Ez Zarokek Bi Navim and Emir Kuda Çû. Exile, loss, longing and statelessness run through his lyrics, and he has said that the love in his songs often stands for love of the homeland. Through simple melodies, a warm, plain voice and the saz, he has reached a young Kurmanji-speaking audience in Turkey and Europe, and he remains one of the most widely heard Kurdish songwriters of recent decades. He is living and continues to record and perform.

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