“I started my solo career because I had stories to tell,” explains singer, songwriter and composer Melike Şahin. Having toured the world as lead singer of Turkish psychedelic legends BaBa ZuLa, Şahin struck out alone and hasn’t looked back. Facing down criticism and censorship, her sumptuous and provocative music draws on the spirit of Anatolian pop and folk to capture the defiant tone of progressive creativity in contemporary Turkey. Speaking up for the rights of women, children and those whose freedoms/identities have been denied, Melike Şahin is rapidly becoming the voice of her generation.

With her debut album Merhem, released in 2021, gathering billions of streams and cementing her reputation as a modern-day superstar diva whose unforgettable live performances have graced stages across the world, Şahin is now on the cusp of releasing her second album, AKKOR, recorded in London with an all-star band and ambitious plans to bring her sound to an even broader audience. But while she has international success in her sights, Şahin’s dedication to the music of her homeland goes back to her roots.

Melike Şahin was first exposed to her father’s love for traditional Turkish folk music from a young age, lulled to sleep by the bittersweet tones of singer Sabahat Akkiraz. Not encountering global rock and pop music until she was in high school, Şahin’s ear was trained on a plaintive strain of Anatolian melancholy that earned her a reputation among fans as “the queen of sadness”, a name some of the funkier tracks on her new album disavow.

When she went solo, it was with the intention to find her own voice, blending the nostalgic resonances of ‘70s and ‘80s Turkish and Middle Eastern music with contemporary style, that she describes as a little bit like time-travel. That she has since collaborated with Kutiman and Ko Shin Moon solidifies her status as an international artist in her own right.

Influenced by the style of Sade, with an industrious attention to detail to match, Şahin cuts a beguiling figure on the stage, backed by a band comprised largely of women, and captivating audiences with her poignant lyricism which strikes at the heart of some of the most urgent social justice issues in contemporary Turkey.

Şahin may not call herself an activist, aware of the fine line between using her platform and having it denied by an oppressive state and virulent right-wing cancel culture, but the subtle and incisive nature of her music has become synonymous with the women’s movement in Turkey.

Despite the potential for backlash, Şahin has continued to find avenues to express solidarity, supporting the rights of women and children to equality and education in the aftermath of the 2023 earthquake. Later that year, she had a show cancelled following her receipt of an Elle Award, which Şahin dedicated to “promoting equality, expressing hopes for a future where individuals are not judged or attacked based on their love interests, gender identities, or forms of self-expression."

Most of all though, it is the potential for her music to convey messages of empowerment that resonates. That her lyrics - “I deserve each and every inch of this smile” – have adorned banners at International Women’s Day protests and Pride celebrations she says makes it all worthwhile. “This is the moment that I told myself, ‘Yes, I am an artist,’” she explains. “I am doing this shit because of this, and I am bearing all of the other things because I am affecting people's lives and I am giving some power.”

On new album AKKOR, Şahin has tapped into this power for herself, channeling her rage at the state of the world into a statement of redemption and rebirth. “My first album [Merhem] was about healing, this one is about surviving,” she explains, having faced down personal challenges, childhood trauma, the exposure of her new-found fame, and the abuse that has followed some of her support for marginalised groups. “You are seeing a woman who falls down, but who rises again and flies,” she asserts. “Maybe she doesn't win, maybe she doesn't lose, but she's a survivor. She is a phoenix.”

And if Şahin’s urgent lyricism comes from within, her compositional approach does too, working with London Brew and Jamie Cullum producer Martin Terefe to bring a punchy London swagger to her idiosyncratic sound. “I don't usually give musical references to my producers. I give emotional references,” she explains, “If it's a sadness, it's sadness, and I'm trying to grasp the dynamic within the song.” Recorded live in London with musicians such as guitarists Dave Okumu and violinist Raven Bush, as well as Nikolaj Torp Larsen on keyboard and Sterling Campell on drums, AKKOR has been her most sonically focused album to date, weaving classic disco and psychedelic reverb into an Anatolian folk lineage that is bound together by Şahin’s unforgettable voice. Invigorated by the calibre of musician she worked with, with ears and eyes open to the world, she is hungrier than ever for what is to come.

“I want to start at point zero, because in Turkey, I made some things, and I'm known here,” Şahin says, having already sold out a US tour in 2024. “Whenever I feel comfortable, I want to disturb it and challenge myself with something new.” Just as the album’s name AKKOR translates as candescent so is Melike Şahin rising again and burning brighter than ever before.

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