Gülben Ergen

Gülben Ergen — Biography

Gülben Ergen (born 25 August 1972 in Kadıköy, Istanbul) is a Turkish singer, actress and former model. She completed her middle school years at Erenköy Girls' High School and her secondary education at Kadıköy Commerce High School. At the age of fifteen, in 1987, she took second place in the Cinema Star Competition run by the Hürriyet newspaper, and once she had finished school she began working as a model.

Her screen debut came with Biz Ayrılamayız, headlined by Bülent Ersoy; she then shared the lead with Kenan Kalav in Kartal Tibet's Deniz Yıldızı. In 1989 she appeared as Meral opposite Cüneyt Arkın in Av. Later she played Zeynep in Fırat (1997), a series directed by İbrahim Tatlıses, and took the title role in Marziye (1998).

Before turning to recorded music she performed on stage as a headline singer; in 1994 she joined İbrahim Tatlıses's supporting roster at the Maksim Casino and appeared in one of his music videos. Her first album, Merhaba, arrived in 1997 on the Elenor label and leaned toward Turkish classical music. The pop-focused follow-up, Kör Aşık, was released in 1999. The lead single from her 2002 album Sade ve Sadece won Best Composition of the Year at the Turkey Music Awards. Her 2004 album Uçacaksın sold 600,000 copies and received a diamond certification from MÜ-YAP. She went on to release 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", spent more weeks at number one than any other song on the official Turkish chart that year. She has also put out singles such as Şıkır Şıkır, Esasen, İnfilak, Müsaadenle and Nanik.

As an actress she is best loved for her role as Melek in Dadı, the Turkish adaptation of The Nanny, which earned her the Best Actress award at the 2001 Golden Butterfly Awards. She also portrayed 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 produced three sons: Atlas and the twins Ares and Güney. In 2018 she was named "Mother of the Year" at the OnurAkayMedya awards. Her albums have sold more than two million copies in total.