Burcu Gunes

She was born in Turkey / İzmir on 12 August. The only child in her family, she grew up hand - in - hand with music. Her childhood years in Şirinyer were spent with seperations and struggles in the family. As a small child in her father’s music filled - world, taking part in many things during the rehearsals where her father worked and at home, she wrote her first piece of music at the age of 12 and gave the signs of a future full of music.

Not suprisingly, she had her first stage experience at the age of 13 as a vocalist to her father in Antalya, where they had moved from İzmir due to her father’s work arrangements. In fact, it was her first step into proffesional stage carrier.

After a while, she was performing jazz and pop songs in big hotels and resorts as a part of duets, trios and orchestras she formed with her father. Even in those years, Burcu had started to build her own audience and fan base. All those who came to listen to her upon hearing about her reputition were amazed by the strong voice and musical prowess of the young girl. Many who heard her sing jazz songs thought she was from England or the United States. «White girl with a black throat» is a nickname coined during those days.

Her parents divorced when she was only 7 years old. As a result of yearning she had for her mother during all those years, she returned to İzmir when she was 18 and began to live with her mother. During the same period, she continued her development by getting tuition in singing, articulation and solmization from the dean of the state conservatory of the 9 Eylül University in İzmir, Prof. Dr. Müfit Bayraşa. While working at İzmir’s premier jazz clubs, at big resorts and in summer time in Bodrum, she also attended several festivals and music contests with Müfit Bayraşa and won several awards. In those days, she had world famous classical piano player Burçin Büke listen to her lyrics and music. Going into the studio together, they made their recordings of jointly created songs.

Those recordings were sent to Raks Universal Record Company in İstanbul. A week later she was urgently called to İstanbul by the company officials Galip Kayhan and Koral Sarıtaş to prepare her first album.

In 1998 Burcu released her first album «Aşk Yarası» with the contributions of some of the most important music people of Turkey, like Garo Mafyan, Nino Varon, Tanju Arıkan and his team. In the same album she also performed Gloria Gayner’s «First be a woman» in Turkish lyrics written by Zeynep Talu. Songs from this album «Alimallah» and «Yaşadık Bitmedi» were used in a compilation album released in France and created a lot of interest. She became a best-up-coming female pop singer of 1998. Supported by renowned musicians, newspaper editors of the country and nicknamed «Daughter Of The Sun», as was the cover of her press release she was know listed among the top three important voice of Turkey.

In 1999, she began to preparation for her second album with Melik Yirmibir who was a musician living in United States. Wishing to emphasise her other characteristics in this album, Burcu got into cooperation with the world famous songwriter and producer Ara Dinkjiyan and performed 5 of his songs. This pop work combined with ethnic music, was completed with contributions of world famous musicians in United States. Horacio «El Negro» Hernandez in drums, Jim Beard in keyboards and Arto Tunçboyacıyan in percussions are some of these musicians. She was reinforcing her creative side in this album with her own lyrics and music. Signing and agreement with Erol Köse and changing her company and contract; she refreshed her album with her new team. Known by her «black throat», Burcu Güneş succesfully performed the well - known classical Turkish music song «Çile Bülbülüm» and made this song popular again after many years.

The preparation for second album lastes until 2001. She cooperated with several musicians. The succesfull arranger, Tufan Taş, began arranging sons for the first time in this album and opened the way to producing for their musicial partnership in the upcoming years. In her second solo album, «Tılsım», she dazed her listeners with her performance of Erhan Güleryüz’s «Biz Aşkı Meleklerden Çaldık*». Following the release of the album, Burcu got into a very intense schedule of concerts and toured all of Turkey as well as many European countries. This album sold 700.000 in 2001 and became one of the best selling albums of the year. TAÇSAV (headed by Dr. Hasan Acar) awarded her the title of «Ideal Turkish Girl» because of her exemplary life style. In other words, her second album «Tılsım» became a milestone in establishing her orginality in many aspects.

Burcu started to work on her third album in 2002 and by mainly using the songs she wrote (Ay Şahit, Sınıfta Kal, Uyan, Çarpar, Coğrafya, Alışmak, Uzağına Düştüm) she bolstered her succes in song and lyrics writing. She continued to work with Erol Köse as her executive producer.

In joint musicial direction with Tufan Taş and after two years of work, she released her third album titled «Ay Şahit» in 2004. By the first week of its release, the album became very popular. Featuring with Ceza in Mert Ekren’s «Sahilden», she opened a new page for the rap musik in Turkey. Her every song was accompanied by the crowds during her concerts. Starting ro have a disagreements with her producing company shortly thereafter, she went through a period of struggles until the public tender by TMSF (Savings Accounts Insurance Fund) where buying out her contract and the rights to her artistic activities, she became a first doing this and signed her own declaration of indepence.

Remaining silent until the end of 2006, she released her album «Ben Ateş, Ben Su», which she produced and took 1,5 year to complete in cooperation with Bülent Seyhan. She managed the musical direction along with Tufan Taş and Mert Ekren. She worked on love, freedom, renovation awareness and self questioning themes in this album.

Believing that one has to start from her inner self to renovate and improve herself, she attended programs in spiritual and metaphysics fields whose reflections she experienced in many areas in her life. She developed and interest in Mesnevi, the collection of the teachings by Mevlana, as a reaction to the fact that modernization and a materialistic outlook on the world during the last few centuries are driving people away from the richness of the soul and spiritual contentment. The famous philosopher of the middle ages Halil Cibran, as well as Osho and Buddhism are also among her past times.

She is one of the very few singers who developed a very serious base of fans and achieved an audience of between 20.000 and 80.000 people in each of more than 450 concerts she gave in Turkey and Europe. The total sale of her albums sold in Turkey and abroad stands around 1.950.000 today.

Other Albums;

On The Club (2008)
Sihirbaz (2009)
Tamamdır (2010)