Athena

Band History

Athena was formed by twin brothers Gökhan Özoğuz and Hakan Özoğuz in 1987. They started their musical life as a metal band, but switched to the ska genre sometime later.

Until 1999 they performed numerous concerts and paved their way to their first album Holigan. Athena's 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 stayed at the top for a considerable amount of 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,home to the Turkish football club Galatasaray, which they consider 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 people experience an unforgettable night welcoming the new millennium. The said concert was broadcast live by NTV channel to the world. Athena was invited to Popkomm Festival held in Köln, Germany and performed with the Beastie Boys. WDR, the leading radio channel in Germany, broadcasted Athena’s concert live.

The second album “Tam Zamanı Şimdi” was released and the first single Yas¸amak Var Ya was an instant hit. The album sales reached gold status in an extremely short time. Their tour was sold out as a result of their exploding popularity. They performed a series of concerts in Germany pairing up with the famous German ska band The Fritz. After the tour, their song Devam Boşver 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 Athena’s career, the “12 Dev Adam” (12 Giant Men). The song they recorded for the Turkish National Basketball Team had also an immense success in Europe. The Turkish National Basketball Team finished runner-up in The European Championships and many European newspapers commented that the song, sang by the team’s supporters during the games, led the team play better.

In 2002, Athena’s new album Her Şey Yolunda was released. Their 2 songs from this album, Öpücük’ 'and Beyoğlu’' were major hits. 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, and Athena contributed the movement with a song No Need for 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 Rock'n Coke Festival which included such bands and artists as Pet Shop Boys, The Cardigans, Suede, Simple Minds, Sugababes, Dirty Vegas. In January 2004 Athena performed at a series of concerts in the Netherlands which appealed to the Dutch public.

After that, on May 15 2004 Athena represented Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest with For Real. In an unprecedented result, a punk rock band finished 4th in a contest where punk was thought to be unappealing to a mass audience. Athena were the media darlings of the European media at the time. After Eurovision, Athena’s maxi single For Real was released in Germany and Greece. Athena’s 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, Germany’s number one talk show. They performed live at the programme, creating a large fanbase in Germany in the process. In June 2004 Athena’s 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 then hit the shelves in April 2005. Athena then performed in a series of concerts that sold out to tens of thousands. Athena often performs at Fenerbahçe football games, being die-hard supporters of the club. In 2007 Athena made an album special for Fenerbahçe's 100th anniversary.