Karsu

While still a teenager, Karsu Dönmez amazed the guests in her father’s restaurant with her singing and piano playing. Now the Turkish-Dutch singer is a welcome guest at New York’s Carnegie Hall and delights a global audience with jazzy pop, piano ballads and danceable funk. Her sound is so versatile that it feels like a genre all her own. The albums Confession and Colors combined poetic lyrics in English and Turkish with sophisticated compositions before her 2019 album Karsu confirmed her status as a musical kaleidoscope: Agree to Disagree tempts listeners with Oriental-flavoured songs, and İnadına meanders over a quick ska beat while the brass section blasts out in the background. By contrast, in Sana ne her scratchy rock vocals run up and down the Arab scale. Most recently, Karsu released a catchy dancefloor anthem – this time in Dutch: Kom dansen. The audience won’t need to be told twice.