Simge Sağın (born 8 August 1981) is a Turkish singer. From early 2010s, she started to make Turkish pop songs, and with the release of her single “Miş Miş” in 2015 she became one of the well-known artists in Turkey.

Born in Şişli, Istanbul, Simge decided to pursue a career in music and with her father’s support enrolled in Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory and took music education. After graduating, she worked as a backing vocalist for many pop singers before releasing her first EP Yeni Çıktı (2011) with the help of Erdem Kınay. Her debut did not earn her the success that she had intended, and her main breakthrough came four years later with the single “Miş Miş”, which became a number-one hit on Türkçe Top 20 for four weeks. Following the release of “Yankı” and “Ben Bazen”, her name continued to appear among the top three on the music charts, and her song “Öpücem” became a number-one hit in Turkey. Her first studio album, Ben Bazen, was released in 2018, and she received praise from music critics for her musical diversity.

Simge, who has been influenced by Sezen Aksu, has generally released dance-pop songs. Since 2015 her songs have been among the most-streamed works on Turkey’s radio and television programs, and in 2018 she became the second female artist with the most number of streams in the country. She has won three Golden Butterfly Awards and two Radio Boğaziçi Music Awards and has received various other nominations.

Simge Sağın was born on 8 August 1981 in Şişli, Istanbul, as the second child of her parents. Her mother is of Albanian descent. Her father is also a musician from Amasya. She also has a younger sibling. At the age of 12 she started playing guitar and composing. Simge was not academically successful in high school and, in her own words, she “was disgusting, bad, and a copycat. I used to make copies on my leg and pencils [for cheating]. I was awful in mathematics, physics and chemistry. My literature was good though.” She continued her studies in music as a graduate of ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory. She studied Turkish classical music and got a chance to work with many musicians like Alaaddin Yavaşça and Sadahaddin İçli at college.

She gained her first professional experience in Zeynep Dizdar’s orchestra. Later, she worked as a backing vocalist for many musicians, including Gülşen, Yaşar, and Serdar Ortaç. She then started to perform on her own at a few places. She made a duet with Kıraç for the TV series Annem, which debuted in 2007. The song “Annem (Mommy)” was among the 20 most listened songs on digital platforms in 2010. She also contributed to the work of many screen credits and soundtracks for TV series, such as Son Bahar (2008). Later, she worked as a backing vocalist on various albums, including Demet Akalın’s Zirve (2010) and Gülşen’s Ama Bir Farkla (2007). While working for Serdar Ortaç, Simge met Erdem Kınay who was quoted to have said that he would help her produce her own album.

After working for a year with Erdem Kınay, Simge’s first EP Yeni Çıktı was released in March 2011 by Kaya Müzik. The album’s lead single “Ödeme Vakti” was released at the same time with an accompanying music video, followed by another video for the song “Başı Dertte”. In order to promote her work, Simge made appearances on programs such as Beyaz Show, Disko Kralı and Hakan Bey. In March 2012, she won the Best Newcomer Artist award at the 2nd Pal FM Awards. Yeni Çıktı did not bring the success that Simge had expected and later in her career she described that failure in a statement saying that it had failed due to “inconvenient publicity”. Naim Dilmener of Hürriyet described Simge’s debut in her article, stating “Kaya didn’t make any effort to introduce the young singer, and that good-voiced teenage singer couldn’t make her voice heard as much as she needed to.”

After making her debut Simge continued to perform on her own, and in 2013 she signed seasonal contracts to perform weekly in Eskişehir and İzmir. To continue her work, she signed a new contract with Doğan Music Company and released the single “Bip Bip” in September 2014. “Bip Bip” made more success than the songs she had released three years prior and made her known in the music market, and in Simge’s words, returned a “forgotten singer” to life. For the song’s music video, directed by Nihat Odabaşı, Simge spent a significant amount of money, leaving her with a ₺30,000 balance on her credit card, which she continued to pay back for a period of time.

Simge continued her career with releasing a cover version of Riff Cohen’s song “Dans mon quartier” which was turned into Turkish under the name “Miş Miş” and published in June 2015. The song topped Türkçe Top 20 for four weeks, and made Simge widely known inside the country enabling her to give 200 concerts by the end of the year. According to Telifmetre, the single was the most played song on radio and television in the second half of the year. The single was chosen as the “Best Song” in many award ceremonies including the Golden Objective Awards organized by Magazine Journalists Association, while Simge herself was named the “Best Newcomer Soloist” in a number of award ceremonies including the 42nd Golden Butterfly Awards. Doğan Music Company also gave “Miş Miş” a golden plaque as one of “2015’s most listened songs on digital platforms”.