Serpil was born in Istanbul to Kazım Polat and music soloist Aysel İpar. She began her acting and singing career in the 1960s and recorded 45 different tracks between 1976 and 1978. That year, she competed to represent Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest, but was placed below the eventual representatives Nazar and Nilüfer. She then moved to the United States and lived there for 15 years. Upon her return to Turkey in 1993, the &lt;a href="HIV/AIDS"&gt;HIV/AIDS&lt;/a&gt; epidemic and the Bosnian Genocide had become central issues in the region. Alongside fellow musician , she recorded "Benim Adım İnsan", "Sahipsiz Çocuklar", and "Bosna", which aimed to give widespread publicity to these issues. From 1998 to 2001, she appeared on the program "Serpil Barlas'la Kurdele".