Simge Sağın

Simge Sağın — Biography

Born in Şişli on 8 August 1981, the second child of an Albanian mother and a musician father from Amasya, Simge Sağın began playing guitar and composing at twelve, and with her father's encouragement trained in voice at Istanbul Technical University's Turkish Music State Conservatory under teachers including Alâeddin Yavaşça and Selahattin İçli. She started out as a backing vocalist, first for Zeynep Dizdar, then for four years with Gülşen, and later with Yaşar and Serdar Ortaç; her 2007 duet with Kıraç, "Annem", became one of the most-streamed songs of 2010. Her 2011 EP Yeni Çıktı, produced by Erdem Kınay, won her the Best Newcomer Female award at the Pal FM Awards but not the wider recognition she wanted; after what she called "hitting a wall," she self-produced the 2014 single Bip Bip, taking out a ₺30,000 loan to pay for its video. Her Turkish-language cover of French singer Riff Cohen's "Dans Mon Quartier," released as Miş Miş in 2015, delivered her real breakthrough and led to roughly 200 concerts that year. Co-written with Sezen Aksu, Deniz Erten and Ersay Üner, Yankı (2016) reached number two on the charts, and that same year her Bollywood-inspired cover Kamera won a Radio Boğaziçi Award. Her 2018 debut album Ben Bazen produced the number-one single Öpücem, and that year she was named the country's second most-streamed female artist.