ELIF Essentials

Elif Demirezer finds a powerful medium for self-expression in German pop. She lays full-blooded vocals over forceful melodies and dreamlike, string-laced ballads as she carves her own identity, by turns vulnerable and self-assured. A millennial Berliner with Turkish heritage, the singer-songwriter contemplates the divide between these two sides in songs like the touching, Eastern-tinged title track from her second LP, Doppelleben (“Double Life”). And she veers into nocturnal electro-pop and hip-hop on third album NACHT (2020)—including in a hit collab with rapper Samra.