Kenan Dogulu

Kenan Dogulu (born on May 31, 1974 in Istanbul) is a Turkish pop music musician. In the summer of 2006, Doğulu released his hit album Festival and his number one single, Çakkıdı, which became one of the top hit songs of 2006.He is also planing to release a "best of" album, which will include the most popular songs from his previous albums. He represented Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki, where he placed fourth with 163 points.

Early Years

Kenan performing at 2007 Eurovision Song Contest

At the early age of five, he enrolled into the piano class of the School of Music with the highest scores. Having completed six years of education in the piano class, he started flute classes from Erkan Alpay, his instructor, and continued with guitar classes from Erdem Sökmen with the establishment of the class. In the mean time he continued his education in drama and rhythmic instruments, and he carried on singing as a soloist in the children's chorus. Later, he successfully graduated from Kültür Koleji and completed the Communications certificate program at Hesser College, New Hampshire, United States.

Rise

The first album of the artist, Yaparım Bilirsin was released in August 1993. 93 concerts held that year was a considerable achievement in Turkey. His second album Sımsıkı Sıkı Sıkı was released in December 1994 and achieved an unbelievable success with 175 live performances of the singer that year. The album Kenan Doğulu 3 which was launched in the music shops in August 1996 achieved great appreciation of his fans.

Decennial March, a symbol of the Republic of Turkey, was arranged and presented by Kenan Doğulu to contemporary Turkey and Turkish people on October 29, 1997, the Republic Day. The maxi single Kenan Doğulu 3.5 including the mentioned arrangement of the Decennial March was released in 1997. He has contributed to a great extent in making the Republic March put on the agenda, become popular and to be embedded in children's and youth's minds again. Within the celebration programmes of 75th annivesary of the Republic of Turkey in 1998, he also successfully accomplished a Republic Road Show starting in Bursa, followed by Antalya, İstanbul, Ankara, İskenderun, Samsun, Selçuk and ended in İzmir.

In 1999, inspired by the great attention of the Turkish people on the rearrangement of the Decennial March, the artist released a new album with the rearrangement of the Youth March in the memory of Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey. He believes these works play an important role in conveying the spirit of nationalism to younger generations. The new album Ben Senin Herşeyinim was released the same year. Keeping silent for two years, he fulfilled the expectations of his fans with his album Ex Aşkım which became a hit in 2001. In 2002 Kenan Doğulu 5.5, the unplugged version of Ex Aşkım was released and it reached mass audiences gaining as much appreciation as Ex Aşkım. He addressed his fans again in 2003 with a brand new album Demedi Deme. His latest album, Festival, was released in 2006. On the album, he has a collaboration with the matriarch of Turkish Music, Sezen Aksu. He represented Turkey at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki with Shake It Up Shekerim. Owing to his 3rd position in the semifinal, he passed to the final where he placed 4th with 163 points.