Turkey Rising: Erol Alkan Leads a Board Built on Melodic House & Techno

Turkey currently counts 57 DJs on the DJ Radar board, and you can name the sound at the top in a few words: Melodic House & Techno. Six of the country's top eight list it as their main genre. The two exceptions hold the top two spots, and that contrast is the most interesting thing about the Turkish rankings right now.

Erol Alkan leads with a credit score of 835 and 6668 votes, the highest vote count in the country's top eight. Alkan's main genre is Nu-Disco / Indie Dance, and the profile stands out for its breadth rather than any single spike: 130636 Spotify monthly listeners, 84035 Instagram followers, 92858 Last.fm listeners, 13543 Mixcloud followers and 9445 RA followers. That RA figure is the highest in this group.

The lead is real. Alkan's 835 sits 53 points clear of second place.

Second place belongs to islandman, with a credit score of 782 from 6234 votes. Listed under House, islandman has the largest streaming numbers among Turkey's top eight: 324258 Spotify monthly listeners, 96440 Spotify followers and 103000 YouTube subscribers. Both Alkan and islandman sit in the house genre family, which sets the top two apart from the melodic wave below.

From third place down, Melodic House & Techno takes over, and this is where the competition gets close. Just 19 points separate ranks three through six.

Deniz Koyu takes third on 764 from 6188 votes, backed by 223799 Spotify monthly listeners, 96016 Spotify followers and 122402 Last.fm listeners, the top Last.fm figure in this group.

widerberg is only 8 points behind on 756. There's a detail worth noting here: widerberg's 6262 votes are more than both Deniz Koyu and islandman received. The order follows credit score, not raw votes. widerberg's profile also includes 91776 Spotify monthly listeners, 17900 YouTube subscribers and 3520 RA followers.

Ali Bakgor sits fifth at 749 with 6070 votes. Bakgor's 242189 Spotify monthly listeners are second only to islandman in this group, alongside 69178 Last.fm listeners.

Sezer Uysal closes out the cluster at 745, just 4 points behind Bakgor, from 5119 votes and with 59118 Spotify monthly listeners.

Deniz Kabu ranks seventh with a credit score of 718 and 5421 votes, plus 21966 Spotify followers and 6589 Last.fm listeners.

Lunar Plane completes the top eight at 703 from 5363 votes, with 53851 Spotify monthly listeners, 12227 Spotify followers and 2159 RA followers.

So what does the Turkish board tell us? The upper tier leans hard into melodic territory, while house-family artists hold the top two spots. The scores run from 835 down to 703 across the top eight. That's a wide enough spread to make Alkan's lead meaningful, but the middle of the table is so crowded that a strong voting push could reshuffle ranks three through six.

For fans, the takeaway is simple. If melodic house and techno is your lane, Turkey's board is full of names worth following. Listen, vote and keep an eye on the middle of this table, because it's the part most likely to move.