Karsu

Karsu — Biography

Karsu Dönmez was born in Amsterdam on 19 April 1990 to a family with roots in Hatay, Turkey. At age seven her parents bought her a piano with money they had saved for a car, and by fourteen she was already drawing attention performing at her family's restaurant.

Known mononymously as Karsu, she built a career as a Turkish-Dutch singer, pianist and composer whose jazz-pop sound blends jazz, blues, pop and Turkish influences, with songs recorded in Dutch, English and Turkish. She gained wider recognition through performances at New York's Carnegie Hall and frequent appearances on Dutch television, and in 2024 she was one of five finalists in the Netherlands' national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, ultimately losing out to Joost Klein.

In 2026 the Netherlands named Karsu an "Ambassador of Freedom" for its Liberation Day commemorations and knighted her in the Order of Orange-Nassau, recognizing the cultural bridge she has built between Turkey and the Netherlands.