Selda Bağcan

Selda Bağcan — Biography

Havva Selda Bağcan (born December 14, 1948, in Muğla) is a Turkish folk singer-songwriter, guitarist and composer known for her work in Turkish folk music and the Anatolian rock/özgün müzik tradition. After studying at Ankara University, she launched her career in the 1970s and quickly became one of Turkey’s most influential folk artists, collaborating for years with fellow musician Ahmet Kaya.

Her lyrics frequently carried social and political criticism, making her one of the country’s leading voices in protest music; this stance led to repeated detentions and imprisonment in the 1980s, the confiscation of her passport in 1986 that kept her from performing at the WOMAD festival, and years of being shut out by state broadcaster TRT.

In the summer of 2026 she drew wide media attention after meeting young singer Aleyna Tilki in Bodrum and publicly praising her, while earlier that year she joined musician Cahit Berkay in speaking out on a current political controversy, underscoring that she remains an engaged public voice.