Şebnem Ferah

Şebnem Ferah (born 12th April 1972) is a Turkish singer and song-writer. She was the lead vocalist of the all-female hard rock band Volvox (TR) until 1994, after which she went on to pursue a solo career. Her musical style varies from acoustic rock to hard rock, though her later albums have progressively incorporated more of the hard rock sound.

Born in Yalova to Turkish immigrant parents from Skopje, Macedonia, Ferah got her first guitar when she was in the first year in boarding at Bursa Namık Sözeri High School. She took lessons on the acoustic guitar, and during her second year she hired a studio with her friends and formed the group Pegasus. The group had their first stage experience during a rock festival in Bursa, in 1987. After a while, Pegasus disbanded. In 1988 with her four friends, Ferah formed Volvox, which was named after a microorganism that they had encountered in a biology lesson.

After a period during which she attended Middle East Technical University, studying economics in Ankara, she moved to Istanbul, where she attended classes on English language and literature at the Istanbul University. For two years she performed in various bars with Volvox, until they disbanded in 1994.

She released her first solo album, Kadın in 1996, and has gone on to release a total of five full studio albums, the last one being Can kırıkları, released in 2005, which also marked her return to the hard rock genre after experiments with soft rock. In addition to composing the music and writing the lyrics of every song in her albums, she occasionally sings on stage cover versions of work by artists of similar vocal qualities and style, such as Amy Lee and Skin.

On her third album, Perdeler, she collaborated with the Finnish cello rock band Apocalyptica.

Ferah's current group consists of Buket Doran (bass guitar), Metin Türkcan (electric guitar), Aykan İlkan (drums), and Ozan Tügen (keyboard), who have been performing with her in studio and on stage since her third album, Perdeler.