Ebru Gündes

Ebru Gündeş (October 12, 1974) is a Turkish singer and actress whose music combines mainstream pop music with Arabesque, a type of love song that originated in Turkey in the 1960s. Born in the city of Istanbul, she continued her education in Ankara but had to drop out due to financial issues. Her musical talents were discovered after one of her relatives had her audition for a member of the Raks Neşe Müzik label, who later introduced her to producers Koral Sarıtaş and Selçuk Tekay. In 1992, her studio debut Tanrı Misafiri sold over 1 million copies and helped introduce her to a widespread audience. In subsequent years, she went on to become one of the biggest pop stars in her native country with the massively successful albums Tatlı Bela (1994), Ben Daha Büyümedim (1995), Kurtlar Sofrası (1996), and Sen Allah'ın Bir Lütfusun (1998), her last release on Raks Neşe Müzik. Despite suffering a cerebral hemorrhage during its recording process, Gündeş's sixth album Dön Ne Olur (1999) quickly became one of the best-selling Turkish albums of all time and was followed by Ahdım Olsun in 2001. After a streak of commercially unsuccessful albums during the early aughts, Ebru Gündeş returned to the spotlight in 2019 with her fifteenth full-length Âşık, whose title track broke the record for the most-downloaded song on the day of its release. Her winning streak carried over into 2022 with the Murat Boz collaboration "Sonsuza Dek," which placed at Number 10 on the Turkish Top 100.