Singer, composer, TV producer and TV celebrity. He was born in Istanbul on January 2nd, 1943. After the high school education in Galatasaray Lisesi - Turkiye, he is graduated from "L'Académie Royale des Beaux Arts de Liège" in Belgium in 1969. Being the pioneer of the Turkish "ethnic rock" since 1958, he still performs live, in Turkiye and abroad with his band "Kurtalan Ekspres". (Mainly in Japan, where he produced two CDs) Until today, he composed, music and lyrics, for over 200 songs. A large number of these songs were translated into Greek, Bulgarian, Romanian, Arabic, Persian, Kurdish and re-recorded by local artists. 12 of his albums / CDs were crowned gold and 1 platinium. In 1988, after 30 years of brilliant singer career, with a young and dinamic team, he created a new "family and children oriented" TV show for TRT 1 (Turkish State TV, 1st. channel ). The basic idea was, to travel around the world, to meet remote peoples (mainly children), and to try to build new cultural bridges between countries. And all this, in a unique blend of an educational, entertaining but musical atmosphere. "From 7 to 77 with Baris Manco", completed it's eigth succesful year, and reached its 300th. week (an anniversary that has never celebrated before by any TV show in Turkiye) is still one of the nations most favorite sunday TV shows and is retransmitted the same day, by satellite to Europe, to the Mediterrannean area, to the Central Asia and to the Middle East. Baris Manco and his TV crew travelled "From the Polar Circle to Equator", via Patagonia and Himalayas, and covered more than 150 countries. (already 500.000 km. were left behind). In other words, they toured some twelwe times and a half, around the world. The presidents, philosophes, writers, members of the royal families, superstars, astronauts... are some of the VIP's that Baris Manco has already hosted in his show. As a token of appreciation for such an international cultural effort, Baris Manco received some 300 grand prix awards, trophees, prizes and nominations in his career. We lost Baris Manco of a sudden heart attack on 31.01.1999.He will live forever in his lovers' hearts. He also was : Doctor Honoris Causa Es Art of the Hacettepe University, Ankara. Turkiye (1991) Turkish State Artist of the Republic of Turkey. Ankara (1991) International Culture and Peace Award of the Soka University, Japan. Tokyo(1991) Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the Republic of France. Paris (1992). Chevalier de l'Ordre de Léopold II of the Kingdom of Belgium. Brussels (1992) Honorific Citizen of Türkmenistan. Askhabat (1995) Doctor Honoris Causa of the Pamukkale University, Denizli. Türkiye (1995) Highest Honor Award of Art of Min-On foundation, Japan. Tokyo (1995) He was fond of "Victorian" and "Art Deco" furniture. He owned two of the largests collections of "Art Nouveau Glass" and 18th. century Japanese "Imari" porcelain in Turkiye. He also collected British fine cars of the 1950's. Baris Manco was married and father of two sons. He was fluent both in English and French. and Finaly he left this planet .....suddenly..!!!! But FOREVER he will be living in our hearts..His melodies will always stay in our memories...with a smile ...
