With a new lineup and her latest album Meydan (2025), Meral Polat from the Netherlands, star of the 26th edition, will return to the festival. The singer of Kurdish origin has won critical acclaim for her energetic fusion of Kurdish folk music, raw grooves, minimalist blues arrangements, and, of course, her singing, which is full of dramatic twists, microtonal shifts, and melodic embellishments typical of Middle Eastern music.

Singer and actress Meral Polat, whose performance at the Respect Festival 2023 was for many the biggest surprise and highlight of the entire year, was born in the Netherlands, where her parents moved from Turkey for work. Her father was formally a guest worker, but in his heart he was a poet. Meral set his lyrics to music on her exceptional debut album. The singer’s ancestors come from the Kurdish Alevi community, which, unlike mainstream Islam, allows critical thinking and values individuality and education. Meral Polat draws not only on Kurdish melodies, but also on Greek, Turkish, and Persian ones. While the accompaniment creates a sharply rhythmic but instrumentally minimalist groove, the vocals are charged with dramatic twists, microtonal shifts, and melodic embellishments typical of Middle Eastern music. Meral Polat is coming to Prague with her new album Meydan (2025).