Şebnem Ferah

Şebnem Ferah — Biography

Şebnem Ferah is one of the singers who carried rock into the Turkish mainstream: a vocalist, composer and guitarist. Her concert run that restarted in 2026 saw tickets vanish within minutes, and her Istanbul show at Yenikapı drew around forty thousand people.

She started out with Volvox, the all-female band she formed while boarding at a high school in Bursa. She left economics at Middle East Technical University and later enrolled in English language and literature at Istanbul University. When the band broke up in 1994, Sezen Aksu and Onno Tunç took notice, and she sang backing vocals for Aksu for a while. Her first solo album, Kadın (1996), put "Vazgeçtim Dünyadan", "Yağmurlar" and "Fırtına" at the top of the charts. Artık Kısa Cümleler Kuruyorum (1999) dropped synthesised sounds for a darker, heavier rock approach, while Perdeler (2001) turned acoustic and included a collaboration with Apocalyptica. Her sound hardened again on Kelimeler Yetse (2003) and Can Kırıkları (2005), followed by Benim Adım Orman (2009), Od (2013) and Parmak İzi (2018).

Her 2007 Istanbul concert, recorded with the Istanbul Symphonic Project, became the best-selling concert DVD in the country. At the PowerTürk awards she won Best Concert in 2007, then Best Female Artist and Best Concert in 2008. She turned down TRT's offers to enter Eurovision in 2009 and 2010.