Turkish musician hopes to play darbuka for Joe Biden

ISTANBUL

Turkish musician Bilal Goregen wants to play the darbuka for US President-elect Joe Biden and congratulate him on his win.

"I would like to congratulate Biden and play the darbuka for him. Biden is very democratic. I love him very much," the visually-impaired Goregen told Anadolu Agency.

"Democracy, freedom, equality [...] are, in fact, values that every human being should defend. So I congratulate Joe Biden as someone who defends these values."

A video of Goregen recently went viral on social media showing him performing the popular Finnish song 'Ievan Polkka on the darbuka, a goblet-shaped single-headed hand drum, while sitting on a park bench.

The funny video, which features a cat "vibing," or rhythmically bobbing its head to the song, became a viral meme.

​​​​​​​Goregen shared the video on his YouTube channel on Nov. 1 and it received millions of likes within a month.

Parodies of his video were also shared by millions of people around the world.

Biden supporters later added a dancing Donald Trump to the video after Trump lost the presidential election, and Goregen became world-renowned amid the tense US polls.

YouTube shared a post on its official Twitter and Instagram accounts describing Goregen's viral video and inviting users to subscribe to his channel and listen to his music.

Speaking about his musical ability, he said: "I cannot act modestly about this."

"In Turkey, everyone plays the darbuka, sings a song and makes music. But I am the only one in Turkey who can play percussion instruments and imitate various rhythms with my mouth and create instruments from these sounds."

With his unique playing style of the darbuka, Goregen, 32, became popular in Turkey on the local version of Got Talent, a TV competition, 10 years ago.