Zara

Born in Istanbul in 1976 under the name Neşe Yılmaz, Zara sits at the crossroads of Turkish music, at the intersection of Turkish folk music, Turkish classical music, arabesk and pop. Coming from a family from Adıyaman, she began singing at a very young age under the name Neşecik before adopting the stage name Zara in the late 1990s. Trained at the State Conservatory of Turkish Music of Istanbul Technical University, she also joined TRT as a performer of Turkish folk music, which anchors her career in both transmission and performance. Zara released her first album under this name, Avuntu, in 1998, followed notably by Boyut (2000), Misafir (2002), Özlenenler (2003), Zamanı Geldi and Bülbül-i Şeyda (2005), then Bahar (2008), Hazine (2011) and Zara & İstanbul Flamenko 5’lisi (2012), where her repertoire opened to arrangements with flamenco accents. The albums Derin Aşk, issued in several installments between 2014 and 2020, continue this movement between popular song, traditional repertoire and more sentimental forms. Parallel to music, Zara has also worked for cinema, television and presenting shows, while appearing regularly in contexts where refined music, Anatolian folk and Turkish variety intersect.