Şehrîbana Kurdî

About Şehrîbana Kurdî

Şehrîbana Kurdî is a Kurdish singer known for her Kurmanji folk and patriotic songs, her strong traditional voice and her stage appearances in Kurdish dress. She was born and raised in İzmir in western Turkey, where her father had moved from Mardin Province; her family's roots are in Qoser (Kızıltepe). As a girl she won a local singing competition in İzmir, and her father encouraged her to take up music seriously.

She began recording around the turn of the 1990s and soon became a professional singer. Her early albums, among them Ez Keçim Keça Kurdanim ('I Am a Kurdish Girl'), Sor Gula Min and Em Hatin, mixed traditional songs with songs of Kurdish identity, and she has said that she included songs by Mihemed Şêxo, such as Gulîzar and Şêrînê, on all of her albums of those years. She is also among the many singers who have recorded the well-known song Ez Kevok Im. Her later album Evîna Stranan followed in the 2000s.

She has lived in Europe for around three decades and performs at Kurdish festivals, Newroz celebrations and concerts in the diaspora and in Kurdistan, including a 2025 appearance at a festival of traditional Kurdish costume in Zakho. She has said she wants to serve her people through her voice, and her songs speak of love, homeland and the suffering of oppressed peoples. She is living and continues to perform.

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