Manifest: the Turkish girl group going from a court case to Wembley Arena
A year after being prosecuted at home over their stage outfits and choreography, Turkish girl group manifest arrived in London this autumn for their first UK concert at Wembley Arena — a milestone the six-piece see as just the start of bigger ambitions.
The band — Sueda Uluca, Lidya Pınar, Mina Solak, Zeynep Sude Oktay, Hilal Yelekçi and Esin Bahat — were assembled in February last year through the reality competition Big5 Türkiye, mentored by former Hepsi member and show judge Gülçin Ergül. Their rise has been swift: manifest now draw more than six million monthly Spotify listeners, and a Netflix crew is following them for a six-part documentary as they try to break into international markets. “After Wembley, we’ll manifest Coachella and other big stages,” lead dancer Hilal Yelekçi said, playing on the group’s name.
Their London trip produced another first: TRALALA, the band’s debut English-language single, shot to the top of YouTube’s daily music-video rankings on release, ahead of fresh output from Shakira and Taylor Swift. It was also the first manifest video shot outside Turkey, made with a mostly British crew in east London. Lead vocalist Pınar admitted the shift was uncomfortable: “Getting out from that safe zone was a bit stressful for us.” Still, the group insists its long-term strategy runs through Turkish-language music rather than English. “We want to reach a global audience with our Turkish songs actually, not with English ones,” said Zeynep Sude Oktay. “We want to teach people to sing in Turkish.”
The band cites Hepsi and the Spice Girls as influences — Pınar names Baby Spice as her favourite “because of the pink. I’m pink and blonde, so it’s obvious.” They have also crossed paths with Dua Lipa, who caught their performance in July at her Sunny Hill Festival in Kosovo and greeted the group backstage beforehand. “She came to our backstage and said a lot of great things,” one member said. “We really love her, her songs, her stage presence.”
Legal trouble back home
The London visit comes roughly a year after Turkish authorities opened a public-indecency investigation into the group following complaints about their outfits and dance moves at an over-18s show in Istanbul. Judges ruled the on-stage routine, including its choreography and physical contact, constituted exhibitionism; they handed down suspended sentences — three months and 22 days each — and lifted the travel ban that had barred the members from leaving Turkey. The case drew criticism of Turkey’s record on artistic freedom; singer Ceylan Ertem called it “an open attack on women’s freedom and the performing arts,” while politician Oktay Saral said on X that the group “can never repeat such acts.”
The band declined to discuss the court case in London, focusing instead on their hope of inspiring young fans. “We really, really want to see that little girls look at us and maybe they want to sing too, they want to dance too,” Pınar said. “Maybe they can get the power from us.” About 300 supporters turned out for a fan meet-and-greet at a Turkish eatery in the capital — the group’s first face-to-face meeting with UK fans. “Our concerts and events have been in Turkey before and we never met them face-to-face,” Pınar said. “It was a really cute moment for us.”
Source: BBC News