Elif Demirezer (born 12 December 1992), also known by her stage name ELIF, is a German pop musician of Turkish descent.[1]
Demirezer was born as the daughter of Turkish immigrants in Berlin and is the third of four children. She grew up in the Berlin district of Moabit and attended the OSC KIM school. In addition to performing in both the school musical and the school choir, Demirezer took guitar lessons as a teenager. It was during that time that she wrote her first songs.
At 16 years old, Demirezer competed in the eighth season of the ProSieben talent show Popstars. She made joint appearances with the All American Rejects (The Wind Blows) and Cassandra Steen (Never Knew I Needed) and finished together with her partner Niklas Dennin to earn second place in the final.
After Popstars, Demirezer reinforced her internet presence on Facebook and YouTube by introducing her own songs, which were mainly in German language. She also worked as a blogger for Webradio's "I Love Radio". In 2012, Demirezer joined Tim Bendzko for his November tour of German clubs. Later, in February 2013, Demirezer became the opening act for Ronan Keating during his tour of Germany.
Later in the year, her first single "Unter meiner Haut" (Under My Skin) was released by Universal Music, and reached number 80 in the German single charts in mid-April. On 7 April 2013, Demirezer joined Seeed, Blumio, Glass Bead Game and Andreas Bourani at the memorial concert in Admiral Palace "I Am Jonny – Voices for Our Brother" commemorating the murder of Jonny K. In early August 2013, a single entitled "200 Days Summer" was released. The video, which shows Demirezer along with tame elephants on the island of Sri Lanka, was directed by Justin Kruse, who worked with Ivy Quainoo, Max Herre, Max Prosa, Leslie Clio and Joy Dena Lane on previous productions.
At the end of August 2013, Demirezer's debut album Unter meiner Haut was released. It was produced by Demirezer herself and Philipp Schwär and reached number 23 on the German album charts. In January 2014, she completed her first tour through German clubs.
