Sertab Erener (TR)

About

Also known as: Sertab, Sertab & Voice Male, Sertap Erener, Serteb Erener

Winning Eurovision 2003 with "Everyway That I Can" was a landmark moment for Sertab Erener, making Turkey the first country to take home the trophy that year and earning her the State Medal of Distinguished Service back home. Trained as a classical coloratura soprano, she built her pop career in the 1990s under the wing of Sezen Aksu, racking up a string of number one hits in Turkey across albums like Lâ'l, Sertab Gibi and Sertab Erener. She has a knack for blending Western and Eastern sounds, pulling from opera and classical Turkish music, and her 2004 English language album No Boundaries pushed that further into European markets. Over the following decade she kept reinventing herself without losing her audience. Rengârenk in 2010 marked a confident comeback, Ey Şuh i Sertab in 2012 was a personal tribute to her father, and with Kırık Kalpler Albümü in 2016 she deliberately returned to her nineties pop sound to strong reviews. Few Turkish pop artists can claim the same breadth of hits, crossover reach and staying power she has built across more than two decades.