Deniz Seki

Deniz Seki — Biography

Istanbul is where Deniz Seki, the Turkish pop singer, songwriter and composer, was born on 1 July 1970. Raised in Istanbul as the first child of a chemical engineer father of Alanya origin and a Thessaloniki-born mother, she attended the Çamlıca Girls' High School as a boarder and began her professional life as a presenter at the state broadcaster TRT. Meeting composer Melih Kibar in 1993 opened the door to music, and she sang backing vocals for artists such as Kenan Doğulu and Emel Müftüoğlu.

Winning the Pop Show 95 song contest in 1995 with a song she had written herself, she released her debut album Hiç Kimse Değilim in 1997. Her second album, Anlattım (1999), brought wider fame with songs largely written and composed by Seki herself; it was followed by Şeffaf, Aşkların En Güzeli, Aşk Denizi, Sahici and Sözyaşlarım. She also acted, playing Gonca in the 2006 film Dünyayı Kurtaran Adamın Oğlu, and took part in the television music contest Veliaht in 2013.

In a drug case opened in 2009 she was convicted of trafficking-related charges; arrested in November 2014, she remained in prison until her release on 5 June 2017. She published two books about her prison years, Deniz'in Dibi and Mutluluğa Söz Verdim, and returned to recording and stage work.