ATHENA

Athenas recordings and live performances all around Turkey have made them the most popular and best selling band in Turkey. Starting point of Athena might be traced back to 1987 when the Ozoguz brothers, Gokhan and Hakan became passionately fond of making music. Until 1999 they performed numerous concerts and paved their way to their first album Holigan. Athenas ska sound and songs were welcomed by the local record buying public so much so that the title song Holigan was adopted as a march by football supporters of all ages at the stadiums. The album hit various Turkish charts and they became number one for quite a long time. Shortly after releasing the Holigan album, Athena took a large scale tour in Turkey. One of the significant moments of the tour was their show at Açikhava Tiyatrosu in Istanbul, followed by their role as a support act for the ROLLING STONES concert at Ali Sami Yen stadium which is considered to be the most important performance of their career. Athena was the face of Turkey as part of the Millennium Concert at Taksim Square in Istanbul on the first night of the 2000, and made millions of of people experience an unforgettable night welcoming the new millenium. The said concert was broadcasted live by NTV channel to the world. Athena was invited to Popkomm Festival held in Kln, Germany and performed with BEASTIE BOYS. WDR, the leading radio channel in Germany, broadcasted Athenas concert live. The second album Tam Zamani Simdi was released and the first single Yasamak Var Ya was an instant hit. The album sales reached to a gold record in a very short time. Their tour was sold out. They performed 3 concerts in Germany with the famous German ska band THE FRITZ. After the tour, their song Devam Bosver included on the album World of Ska Volume 11 which was released in Europe by a pioneering ska label Pork Pie Records. Then came one of the major events in Athenas career, the 12 Dev Adam (12 Giant Men). The song they have recorded for the Turkish National Basketball Team had also an immense success in Europe. Turkish National Basketball Team rated runner-up in The European Championships and many European newspapers commented that the song, sang by the teams supporters during the games, led the team play better. In 2002, Athenas new album Hersey Yolunda was in the market. Their 2 songs from this album, pck and Beyoglu, included into the Asian Ska Complation released in Asian countries. 2003 was a particularly busy year for Athena. While the large tour for their latest album was in progress, they started an anti-war movement against the Iraqi war which disturbed most of the world, and Athena contributed the movement with a song No Need to the War, and performed with many other musicians. Athena was the guest group at the huge dance show directed by Beyhan Murphy for Turkish Opera and Ballet. They also performed as a headliner group at the H2000 Festival June 2003, with Starsailor. Athena ended their tour as one of the local headliners at the biggest event of the year the Rockn Coke Festival which included such bands and artists as Pet Shop Boys, The Cardigans, Suede, Simple Minds, Sugababes, Dirty Vegas.etc. In January 2004 Athena performed two concerts in Holland which appealed to the Holland press. After that in May 15th 2004 Athena represented Turkey in Eurovision Song Festival with For Real, where 36 countries attended. For the very first time a punk rock band became 4th with a different sound than pop music. Athena was the media darlings of the European media at the time. After ESC Athenas maxi single inculuding For Real was released in Germany and Greece. Athenas first concert European Turkish Festival was in Germany Berlin after ESC was broadcasted live by TRT (Turkish National TV). After this concert Athena was the guest at TV Total, Germanys number one talk show. They performed live at the programme. In June 2004 Athenas new album US released in Turkey. This album also released in Germany at the end of July. The band also started working on their English album which is due to April 2005. Athena performed in Karlsruhe and Losheim supporting the Die Aerzte at 25th and 26th of June. This 2 concerts were sold out to 25.000 people. In July the 14th Athena performed before the football game Fenerbahe against SV Waldhof Mannheim. This was a very important concert for them. Athena is a very big Fenerbahe supporter since childhood. 2 days after 10.000 people in Stuttgart was cheering for Athena at the Sommerfestival der Culturen. The same weekend Athena was on stage in Cologne at Gloria Club. . In july Athena was on stage at Krilya Rock Festival in Moscow cheering up 100.000 people. A month later they were in Amsterdam at an open air festival called Uitmarkt Festival. At the end of November Athena had a large club tour in Germany including Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Nurnberg, Munich, Bochum, Bielefeld, Cologne… The tour was a big success. Athena welcomed 2005 with a new album called “Athena” and had a new tour all around Turkey. The tour was sponsored by Coca-Cola company’s brand Fanta. In 2006 they released an e.p. called “IT”. The first single was called “Kopek”. The song was a cover of Nirvana song. They performed as the headliner band in a ska festival in Berlin. In November Athena was performing with the legendary punk band Exploited in Istanbul. That was a very special performance for the band.



in 2007 hakan and gokhan decide to have a break. And now May 2010 Athena came back with a new album called PIS. They signed an advertisement and sponsorship contract with VODAFONE and toured around Turkey for 16 days on 12 different cities with VODAFONE and met with their fans. 150.000 fans in different cities cheered Athena after 4 years of longing. Their first single from the new album "Serseri Mayin" is an instant hit among the fans and the critics.