De Burgh plays his legendary songs

ISTANBUL

A fixture on the international music scene for the past 40 years, Chris de Burgh took the stage on July 10 at Istanbul’s Cemil Topuzlu Open Air Theater.

The British-Irish singer performed legendary songs such as “The Lady in Red,” “Don’t Pay the Ferryman” and “A Spaceman Came Travelling” for Turkish fans while also surprising the audience by singing a duet with Turkish singer Aydan Kaya.

De Burgh came to the city with his wife, Diane, and said before the concert that he had previously come to Istanbul a few times to visit historical sites with his family.

De Burgh’s 1980 album, “Eastern Wind,” became one of the biggest-selling albums of all time in Norway. A year later, his follow-up, “Man On The Line,” went top 30 in the United Kingdom, the United States and 20 other countries. His single “High On Emotion” also went No. 1 in 10 European countries.

Now a classic, “The Lady in Red” achieved top status in 25 countries and has now sold in excess of 8 million copies. To this day, it remains one of the most played songs on the planet; in America alone, it has been the recipient of six annual Association of Composers and Publishers Awards, which are presented to acknowledge the track as one of the Top 20 most played records in the United States in a period of 12 months.