Nev

Nevzat Doğansoy was born in Istanbul on 24 December 1968. In an interview published in May 2026 he said his father, Ziya Doğansoy, was a ship's captain, and that until the age of about ten he grew up aboard passenger ships, running on the decks and spending time on the bridge. His father died while he was young. He said his love of the sea came from his father and his love of music from his mother, who had a beautiful voice.

He started playing music on the mandolin and spent his teenage years listening to and collecting records. In his second year at university he bought an electric guitar and was on stage within five months. During his studies in business at Istanbul University he spent summers performing at resorts on the south coast, and he later recalled recording his live sets at a holiday village in Beldibi, near Kemer, and selling the cassettes to guests.

After university Nev worked in business, including as a product manager for Adidas and Slazenger, while continuing to perform. In 1995 he played at Istanbul's Cool Bar with Chantage, a group with Hakan Özer, Kıvanch K. and Tolga İnci. As his songwriting grew, he left business to focus on music. In 2000, at Teoman's invitation, he joined Teoman's tour of Turkey, playing to audiences of nearly 100,000 people along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.

His first album, Her Şeye Rağmen, released in 2001 after three years of studio work, featured his own songs and lyrics, arrangements by Hakan Özer and guest appearances by Göksel, Özkan Uğur and Tuba Önal. The single "Zor" made his name, and the title track was a song he wrote for disabled people. Sen Gibi followed in July 2004, along with a Coca-Cola sponsored concert tour and appearances at a youth festival held in 24 cities. His third album, Işığım ve Gölgem (2007), co-produced with Naim Korudağ, was written entirely by him, and that year students at 13 universities, including Boğaziçi, METU and Yıldız Technical University, voted him best male vocalist. Since 2001 he had given around 400 concerts across Turkey, the largest drawing about 60,000 people at Karadeniz Technical University in Trabzon.

In 2010 he released Bir Nev-i Alaturka, a project two years in the making that reinterpreted classical Turkish art music with rock, tango, Latin and rebetiko arrangements. He produced it himself, with Hasan Esen as artistic adviser, and it was mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound in New York. In 2011 he won best Turkish art music male soloist at the 38th Golden Butterfly Awards. He went on to release Kıyısız Deniz in 2014 and Bir Nev-i Alaturka 2 in 2016, along with singles including "Yokum" and "Vardar Ovası", and he sang on albums by Ercan Saatçi's label and by guitarist Tanju Eren.

Nev spoke publicly about his childhood at sea and the early loss of his father, describing himself as an orphan who grew up as a civil servant's child and never wanted to be a burden on his mother. He kept a lifelong love of the sea, and in May 2026 he said he hoped to record an album of sailors' songs. Little else about his private life was covered in public reports.

Nev was taken to hospital on 3 September 2026 after losing consciousness and was intubated after the first treatment. He was diagnosed with multiple organ failure and remained in intensive care, and he was intubated for a second time in the days before his death. He died of liver failure at Başakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital in Istanbul on 24 October 2026, aged 57.

His death was announced by his manager, İlker Ercan, who wrote that he would remember Nev not only as an artist but as a precious friend and a good person. Musicians including Bertuğ Cemil, Başak Sayan, Burak Bayrak, Demet Akalın and Çiğdem Tunç paid tribute, and Gezegen Mehmet said he had left far too soon, with so many songs still to sing.

Nev is remembered for songs such as "Zor", "Sen Gibi", "Mühürlü Kaderim" and "Benmişim", which helped define Turkish pop-rock in the early 2000s. He wrote and composed almost all of his own material, and his Bir Nev-i Alaturka albums introduced classical Turkish art music to a younger audience through modern arrangements, work recognised with a Golden Butterfly Award in 2011.