Turkish Boyband Crush Launches with Foreign‑Backed Idol House Production

Crush, a seven‑member Turkish pop group, was assembled through the Idol House Turkey competition and is managed by Doğan Music Company (DMC) together with ETL Records. The members—Oğuzhan Çifçi, Batu Cengiz, Miraç Fırat, Barış Çağan Yüksekkaya, Milan Önder, Arda Soydoğan and Efe Şan—were selected by public voting and presented to fans before any music was released.

The project is financed by foreign investors; DMC’s remaining stake was sold to French music platform Believe International, which is backed by EQT X, TCV and other U.S. and Swedish funds. Believe controls a large share of global digital music distribution, and its involvement means that Crush’s streaming revenues are expected to flow to overseas accounts. The group’s debut concert on 12 September is sponsored by Nescafe, a company facing boycott calls over its ties to Israel.

Crush exemplifies the emerging “T‑Pop” model in Turkey, where traditional band formation is replaced by high‑budget, tech‑driven productions that generate a pre‑existing fanbase through reality‑show exposure, mirroring similar trends in K‑Pop.