Yakup Dağhan Baydur was born in Istanbul in 1949. He began his music education with piano lessons at 5 years old and formed his first band, The Young Beatles, at Galatasaray Lise giving his first concert in 1963. Whilst at university he was a DJ and manager at Club 33, the first discotheque in Turkey where he played classical, jazz, rock & and other genres as much as dance music. He also performed, both as an actor and musician, in the musical Hair (1971) produced by Gülriz Sururi and Engin Cezzar with Emin Fındıkoğlu as a musical director . Also during this time he organised musical events with Selçuk Başar’s Gelişim Orchestra and Haramiler. He began his adverstising career with Süheyl Gürbaşkan at Istanbul Reklam and later worked at Eli Aciman’s Man Ajans, finally working as freelance, on directing commercials and writing jingles. In 1978 his composition “Sevince” with lyrics written by Hulki Aktunç, won the Eurovision Song Competition in Ankara and he went on to represent Turkey in Paris with his group Nazar. The same year he moved to London where he collaborated closely with many composers such as Richard Thomas and Paul Buckmaster. In 1986 he founded the first Turkish music publishing company, Muzikotek. He was a member of the MESAM board between 1995-1997 and in 1999 he founded MSG, the second Turkish music copyright society and was chairman until 2003. In 1999, he released the album DEF Orchestra / “Beatles Alaturka”, a fusion tribute to The Beatles with Erdal Kızılçay and Fuat Güner. The band performed in Liverpool at the Mersey side Beatles festival and in 2002 performed again to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of HM the Queen Elizabeth II. Today at Muzikotek, he works within the Turkish & International music, advertising, TV & film sector, promoting and licensing Turkish and World composers music, world wide, with the same energy and passion he had 50 years ago and passing on his knowledge & experience to the young generations at MIAM.