When I first meet Turkish girl group manifest, we're on a boat cruising down the River Thames. The six band members are clutching Union jack umbrellas as they pose for press photographs and mingle with British pop acts, including K-pop-trained boyband dearALICE. Netflix cameras are filming the evening for a six-part documentary.
The group are in London hoping to build on their success in Turkey and reach an international audience. Their ambitions come after a turbulent year at home, during which the band were prosecuted for public indecency over their outfits and dance moves during a concert in Istanbul. A few weeks after their appearance on the boat, I meet the group again at Wembley Arena, where they are preparing for their first UK concert the following night.
As the staging - complete with giant LED screens and the group's logo - is set up around them, the six members rehearse synchronised choreography alongside their back-up dancers. The group consists of main vocalist Sueda Uluca, lead vocalist Lidya Pınar, sub-vocalist Mina Solak, sub-vocalist and main rapper Zeynep Sude Oktay, lead dancer Hilal Yelekçi and main dancer Esin Bahat. But Wembley is just the beginning of their ambitions.
"After Wembley, we'll manifest Coachella and other big stages," says Hilal Yelekçi, playing on the group's name. manifest were formed in February last year through the Turkish reality TV talent competition Big5 Türkiye, which saw contestants compete over several months for a place in the group. They were mentored by established Turkish pop stars, including Gülçin Ergül, a former member of girl group Hepsi, who was also a judge on the show. The band's rise has been rapid, and they now have more than six million monthly listeners on Spotify.
While in London, they released their first English-language single, TRALALA, which topped YouTube's daily music video chart on its release, ahead of videos from Shakira and Taylor Swift. The music video was also their first to be filmed outside Turkey, with the group working with a largely British production crew in east London. "Getting out from that safe zone was a bit stressful for us," says Pınar.
Despite their hopes to perform on British and American stages, they're keen to retain their Turkish identity. "We want to reach a global audience with our Turkish songs actually, not with English ones," says Sude Oktay. "We want to teach people to sing in Turkish." Alongside Turkish girl group Hepsi, manifest cite the Spice Girls among their musical inspirations.
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