Harun Kolçak

Harun Kolçak — Biography

Harun Emin Kolçak was born on 15 July 1955 in Istanbul to actor Eşref Kolçak; while studying at Saint-Benoît he took up bass guitar, and when his passion for music outgrew school he left his studies to work professionally with Erkin Koray, playing bass on Koray's 1977 album Tutkusu. He joined the Ritm 68 orchestra in 1978, turned to jazz after military service, then joined Onno Tunç's orchestra, where Sezen Aksu, whom he met there, encouraged him to sing; he spent seven years as the orchestra's bassist, backing vocalist and soloist, and won awards for duets with Zerrin Özer and Aşkın Nur Yengi at Kuşadası's Golden Dove contest. His 1991 album Beni Affet, produced by Onno Tunç, broke through on "Gir Kanıma," with lyrics by Sezen Aksu, later even adopted as campaign music by a party in the 1992 local elections. He refreshed his image with 1995's Yanımda Kal, released Müzisyen with Aksu producing in 2006, and put out his final album, Yeniden Doğuyorum, in 2012, before revisiting hits as duets with younger artists on 2016's Çeyrek Asır. Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010, he battled the illness for years before dying in Istanbul on 19 July 2017; his father accepted a Golden Butterfly Award for him that December.