Ceylan Ertem

Ceylan Ertem — Biography

Ceylan Ertem was born, per most sources, on 26 December 1980 (the German and Arabic articles give 1 December) in Sakarya's Erenler district to a family of Ubykh descent; she began singing in a municipal children's choir in 1992 and took up piano and guitar in 1995. After the 1999 Gölcük earthquake she moved to Istanbul, studying at Akademi İstanbul and the Müjdat Gezen Art Center before going on to read musicology at Yıldız Technical University. She formed the band Anima in 2000, releasing Animasal in 2006; after the group split she hosted a radio show on Açık Radyo in 2008, joined Philipp Gropper and Wanja Slavin on the Berlin-based "Octophone" project, and toured France and the Netherlands. In 2010 she released her debut solo album, Soluk, recorded with more than forty musicians, followed by Ütopyalar Güzeldir, Amansız Gücenik, Yine de Amin, Seni Senin Gibiler Sevsin and, in 2025, Sana Rağmen. She has spoken of struggling with agoraphobia and staying off stage for years, and follows a vegan diet. In September 2025 she recorded Ahparig with Hüsnü Arkan, in April 2026 she released Babamın İstek Şarkıları, made for her father, and in June 2026 she released the duet Hıçkırık with Sezen Aksu; outspoken on social issues, she criticised the digital music business in July 2026, saying "the point is no longer to make a good song."