Gaye Su Akyol

Gaye Su Akyol — Biography

Gaye Su Akyol was born in Istanbul on 30 January 1985. Her father, Muzaffer Akyol, works as a painter; her mother had a civil-service job and died in 2014. Having finished primary and secondary school in Istanbul, she studied anthropology at Yeditepe University from 2002 to 2007, then spent a period working as a painter herself, showing her work at home and abroad. Interested in music since middle school, before going solo she performed with the groups Mai, Toz ve Toz, and, alongside Tuğçe Şenoğul, in Seni Görmem İmkânsız.

Her solo debut, Develerle Yaşıyorum, came out in 2014, followed by Hologram İmparatorluğu (2016), İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir (2018), Anadolu Ejderi (2022) and the 2020 EP Yort Savul: İsyan Manifestosu. In 2017 she composed several pieces for Ferzan Özpetek's film Red Istanbul, and in 2023 she recorded her first live session for the Seattle station KEXP. Songlines magazine named her its world-music best artist of 2019, and she is recognised as a prominent supporter of the LGBTQI+ community, having been featured on Gzone's magazine cover. She names Selda Bağcan and Nirvana among her influences. She appeared in Volkan Güleryüz's 2020 documentary İris, about trans lives, and married Ali Güçlü Şimşek, her band's guitarist, in 2024.