A Kurdish man famous for his wedding dances on social media has received “countless” offers to perform after Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber shared one of his videos featuring a rap song on Instagram.
Sofi Ömer, a 70-year-old man from Turkey’s Kurdish majority south-eastern Hakkari (Colemerg) province, thanked Bieber for sharing his video, DHA reported.
“I hope I can dance the halay with him,” Ömer said. He was performing the traditional Kurdish dance in the video Bieber shared.
Sofi Ömer is used to being in the limelight, as another video of his had gone viral on TikTok in 2020. Users around the globe posted duets with his dance.
The man has been dancing at weddings for 40 years, and the viral videos are almost eight years old. “Sometimes they pick me up and take me to weddings. I’ve developed unique moves in time,” he said.
Ömer now receives offers from abroad. “There are more offers as my videos are shared on social media,” he added.
He took a year off from dancing when his wife passed away, but has since gone back to his duties as more people kept asking him to lead dances at weddings.
Pro-government media reports referred to Ömer as a Turkish man, prompting outrage on Twitter. Following protests, conservative daily Yeni Şafak removed the word “Turkish” from its report but still refrained from adding in “Kurdish”.