Gülben Ergen

Gülben Ergen — Biography

Gülben Ergen (born 25 August 1972 in Kadıköy, Istanbul) is a Turkish singer, actress and former model. She attended Erenköy Girls' High School for her middle years and finished high school at Kadıköy Commerce High School. While still only fifteen she placed second in the Cinema Star Competition organised by the newspaper Hürriyet, and after graduating she turned to modelling. Before launching herself as a recording artist she worked as a headline singer on stage, and in 1994 she joined İbrahim Tatlıses's supporting line-up at the Maksim Casino.

Her first screen appearances were in feature films. Following Biz Ayrılamayız and Deniz Yıldızı, in which she shared the lead with Kenan Kalav, she played Meral opposite Cüneyt Arkın in Av (1989). In later years she portrayed Zeynep in the İbrahim Tatlıses-directed series Fırat (1997) and the title character in Marziye (1998).

Her recording career opened in 1997 with the debut album Merhaba, released on the Elenor label and weighted toward Turkish classical music; the more pop-oriented Kör Aşık followed in 1999. The lead single from her 2002 album Sade ve Sadece was honoured as Best Composition of the Year at the Turkey Music Awards. Uçacaksın (2004) shifted 600,000 copies and earned a diamond certification from MÜ-YAP. She subsequently issued Fıkır Fıkır 9+1 (2005), the self-titled Gülben Ergen (2006), Aşk Hiç Bitmez (2008), Hayat Bi Gün... (2011), Kalbimi Koydum (2015) and Seni Kırmışlar (2020). Her 2009 duet with Oğuzhan Koç, "Giden Günlerim Oldu", from Uzun Yol Şarkıları, became the song that spent the most weeks at number one on the official Turkish chart that year. Her singles output also includes Şıkır Şıkır, Esasen, İnfilak, Müsaadenle and Nanik.

As an actress she is best remembered for playing Melek in Dadı, the Turkish adaptation of The Nanny, a performance that brought her the Best Actress prize at the 2001 Golden Butterfly Awards. She also played Hürrem Sultan in the series Hürrem Sultan (2003), Gönül in Gönül (2006) and Gülbahar in the film Vezir Parmağı (2017).

Her marriage to Mustafa Erdoğan gave her three sons: Atlas and the twins Ares and Güney. She was chosen as "Mother of the Year" at the 2018 OnurAkayMedya awards, and her cumulative album sales have surpassed two million copies.