İlkay Akkaya

İlkay Akkaya — Biography

İlkay Akkaya is a founder and the lead vocalist of Grup Kızılırmak, regarded as one of the best-known Alevi groups, with concerts across Europe as well as Turkey. Across more than three decades on stage she has released albums with the band and under her own name, worked on theater and film music, and she is still performing today.

She graduated from the Press and Publication School of Marmara University, attended the Istanbul University State Conservatory for a time, and took private voice lessons. Her professional path began with Grup Yorum, on whose albums Berivan - Haziranda Ölmek Zor and Türkülerle she appears. After leaving the group together with Tuncay Akdoğan, she founded Grup Kızılırmak with him and İsmail İlknur on January 10, 1990; the band went on to release thirteen albums, from Pir Sultan Abdal to Yılkı. In the same years she played Ballıhan in the Ankara Birlik Theatre staging of Pir Sultan Abdal, composed the music for the film Bir Küçük Bulut, acted in the play Talan, and gave a concert in Havana alongside the staging of Nâzım Hikmet's Şeyh Bedreddin Destanı.

Her solo work took shape with the albums Kül, Unutma, Yine and Yalnız, followed by Gelmedin Diye in 2010, Umut in 2013 and Hayat in 2015. She has worked with Erdal Erzincan and Hasret Gültekin and written weekly pieces for newspapers and magazines. In 2026 she performed at the METU Spring Festival and at the Canlar Buluşması gathering in Çorum.