Hakan Özoğuz

Hakan Özoğuz — Biography

Hakan Özoğuz is a founding member and guitarist of the Turkish ska-punk band Athena, and the twin brother of its frontman Gökhan Özoğuz. Athena is known for the terrace anthem Holigan, the Eurobasket 2001 anthem "On İki Dev Adam" and fourth place at Eurovision 2004. Hakan also sat on the jury of O Ses Türkiye from 2015 to 2017.

He was born in Istanbul's Fenerbahçe district, studied classical guitar at the Istanbul University State Conservatory and went to London with his twin for musical training. Athena's first big break came with the 1998 album Holigan: the title song became a fixture at football matches, and the band shot its fourth video for "Tarlaya Ektim Soğan". The real rise began in 2000 with Tam Zamanı Şimdi, whose songs "Palavra", "Macera" and "Aşk Meşk Yok" spread by word of mouth. In 2001 "On İki Dev Adam", written for the national basketball team, brought the band the most successful period of its career and became the signature song of basketball fans.

In 2004 Athena represented Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest with "For Real", finishing fourth with 195 points. Albums such as US (2004), Athena (2005), Pis (2010) and Altüst (2014) followed. Hakan said publicly in 2022 that he was being treated for lymphoma, and in 2023 it was reported that he had overcome the illness.