The 27 year old Turkish immigrant, whose real name is Yilmaz Karaman, moved to Paris in 2003 and took a job in a kebab house where he would sing as he served. “It all started with my interactions with customers, asking them whether they wanted tomatoes, mayonnaise,” he explained. “The questions took on their own rhythm and very quickly it became a rap.”

It turned out some of his kebab-hungry clientele worked in a recording studio and they decided to help him reach a wider audience.

The video for the hit song, posted on Daily Motion a sharing site, was shot by a friend in “Chez Diyar”, the purple and yellow kebab house where he works, which Lil’Maaz describes in the song as “the kingdom of grease.” In the video, Lil’Maaz is dancing and rapping in the restaurant, meat roasting on the spit in the background.

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Ismail Tosun, one of Australia’s most celebrated chefs, was born in Bozca Armut, a small Turkish village three hours inland from Istanbul, Turkey and came to Australia when he was five years old. “Mum and Dad divorced when I was nine years old, Dad took my brother. Mum was supposed to take me but I ended up with Mum’s Mum and my Grandfather and they brought me up in Melbourne till I was sixteen and that’s where it began” says Tosun and explains how he became a chef “my grandfather was a butcher and my grandmother, as village women do, made everything – bread, yoghurt, cheese – from scratch, and my education really began with them as a child in Melbourne. They were both really great cooks, and their food is very different from mainland Turkish.” I’ve been very privileged to have seen all this before I even went to an apprenticeship. Seeing this, starting your apprenticeship you matched things up very quickly. To this day I ring Gran to get ideas. She doesn’t like having menus – she believes that what we cook is what you eat – but she loves the restaurant.”

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Omer Zulfu Livaneli was born in Ilgin, Turkey in 1946. After being held under military detention for three months during the coup of March 12 th, 1971, he had to leave Turkey and move to Sweden. After Stockholm, he lived in Paris and Athens, and he returned to Turkey in 1984.

Livaneli’s latest novel “Leyla’s House” was published in Turkey in May 2006; as of today it’s in its 45th edition and a number one best-seller.

His third novel “Bliss”, published in 2002, also a number one best-seller, made 44 editions, became almost a cult work and is recently adapted to cinema in Turkey. In 2005, “Bliss” was published in Greece and Sweden, and in 2006, it was published in France by Gallimard, in the United States by St.Martin’s Press and in Italy by Gremese. Immediately after its publication in the latter, Bliss was awarded by Barnes & Noble, the biggest bookstore chain in the world, with the annually given “Discover Great New Authors” award due to its “superior literary value”. Bliss will soon be published in Norway by Gylendal and in Netherlands by Prometheus/ Bert Bakker. His second novel “One Cat One Man One Death”, his first novel “The Eunuch of Constantinople” and a collection of his stories titled “A Child in Purgatory” have also been published abroad.

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Sema Basol is a global marketing and public relations executive with over 25 years of experience both in the U.S. and Turkey. She has worked with multi-billion dollar corporations, small businesses, start-up ventures, non-profits such as educational and cultural institutions, business executives, government representatives and public figures in both countries. She has launched new businesses and organizations, organized high profile events and executed publicity programs for corporations and individuals.

Sema worked close to 19 years at Mattel Inc. where, as Director of Consumer Products, she built Mattel brands into new businesses that generated annual sales of $300 million in international markets. Under her leadership, sales tripled in the last four years through product launches in new categories and channels as well as through dramatic improvements in quality and design of licensed products.

Over the years, Sema has taken an active role in non-profit organizations, Turkish-American affairs, community organizations and arts. She is currently Program Director for Global Women’s Leadership Network, sponsored by Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.

During the last fifteen years, Sema has organized numerous events and fundraisers for U.S. government representatives such as Congressmen Dan Burton, Jim Moody and Stephen Solarz. She has also hosted Turkish diplomats, visiting Turkish business executives and government representatives.

Collaborating with the museum officials and the U.S. organizing committee, Sema coordinated the Southern California fundraising benefit for the Treasures from the Topkapi Exhibit on the West Coast. As the Turkish-American community liaison, Sema had the opportunity to work with the internationally acclaimed theatre, opera and television director Peter Sellars who produced and directed the biennial Los Angeles Festival, a celebration of arts from around the world.

Sema has a B.A. degree from Bogazici University and an M.B.A. from UCLA Anderson School. Her studies in the U.S. were jointly sponsored by U.S. AID and Turkish Educational Foundation. Sema is married to Dr. Bulent Basol and has two sons. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and San Jose, California.

Bassturk – emblazoned over the “u” is a small crescent with a star instead of two dots – is a duo consisting of two German Turks Volkan Melendiz and Tamer Uygunsözlü. “Oriental pop rap” is what the two call their music style.

Their first single “Yana Yana,” which in German means “side by side,” gives a foretaste: Tamer in Turkish, Melendiz raps in German, and their music sounds like a combination of Turkish pop with R’n'B elements.

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