Özlem Tekin is a Turkish singer, TV show host and occasional actress, primarily known for her music. Though she started out in the hard rock genre, her music has progressed to incorporate different styles such as house, punk, and Turkish folk music.
Özlem Tekin was born in November 18, 1971 in California, United States into a Turkish-American family. Her father Talat Tekin was a prominent Turkologist at UC Berkeley. The Tekins moved to Turkey when she was four years old. Özlem grew up in Ankara, where she went on to study classical western music at the Hacettepe University Music Conservatory in Ankara, specializing in the clarinet.
In 1993, she met Şebnem Ferah, who has now also become another recognized rock musician in Turkey.
While still in Volvox, she met Hakan Peker and they started working on her debut solo album in 1994. This album, Kime Ne (who cares?), was eventually released in January 1996 to widespread critical acclaim. The first single Aşk Herşeyi Affeder Mi? (Does love forgive everything?), written by Barlas Erinç shot to the top of the charts. Other hit tracks include Duvaksız Gelin (Bride without a veil) and Herkes Şanslı Doğmuyor (Not everyone is born lucky).
Then, Özlem Tekin left Hakan Peker’s record label and went to İstanbul Plak which also had acquired other popular singers like Tarkan. Her second album Öz was released in February 1998. This spawned Yol which became an enormous hit.
Laubali came out a year later to great success.
Özlem started up her own TV show on Kanal D called Yaz Rüzgarı (Summer Wind) in 2000. This aired for 1 hour, 5 days a week and received high ratings. In year 2003 she started acting in the TV series «Sil Baştan» (From the Beginning). This show aired for 2 years, also with high ratings.
In 2005, she starred in the stage musical «Mucizeler Komedisi» (The Comedy of Miracles). That very year, her new album «10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0» was released, which presented a much harder sound than her previous effort.
In 2006 she played in the Cem Yılmaz movie «Hokkabaz» (The Trickster).
In the same year,she also played in the TV movie «Maçolar».
After this experiment,she met with a nice surprise which is a forest for her,owing to her tenth year in music sector. After a long preparation,the forest was completed and named as «Özlem Tekin-Bahar Ormanı (Özlem Tekin-Spring Forest)» by her fans.
In 2007, she played in another TV movie «Fesupanallah» and nowadays she is preparing for her new project which is a theatre play «Kim O». Özlem Tekin will share the roles with a famous Turkish thespian Metin Serezli in this project. She also supported some musician friends with her duets in this year. One was a Turkish rock musician Ozturk’s «Ben Uyurken». At the end of this year, she appeared in a famous Turkish rock band Badem’s «Kalpsiz» song and its video clip. This song has become so populer and one of the most listened tracks of recent years.
In 2008,she started a new TV programme in one of the most famous national music channel in Turkey, Kral TV. The programme’s name is «Hiperaktif» (means a person that can not stand without any reactions) because of Özlem’s character. Özlem is fully suitable for the programme format in her second TV announcer experience after «Yaz Rüzgarı». At the end of this year, she supported her friend who is a Turkish singer Mişa in his song «Dost Kalamam» with her duet. She also played in this song’s video clip and this work was mostly shown in TV’s in 2009.
In 2010, after a long break in her album works, she released her 6th studio album «Bana Bi’şey Olmaz». One of the old tracks, «Sil Baştan», which she wrote for TV series with the same name she appeared in, is in this album. She also recorded «Sen Anla» which was written by her and vocalized and used by a famous Turkish singer Levent Yüksel in his album before. One of the interesting work about new album is that she covered a famous Anatolian folk song «Hey Onbeşli» as «Aslan Yarim» in her musical style. The first video clip from this album was «Yatağım Boş». After a while, second video clip «Kimse Bilmez» started to appear in TV channels. Nowadays, the new album’s two video clips can frequently be watched by her fans.
