Orhan Ölmez

Orhan Ölmez — Biography

Orhan Ölmez, a Turkish pop and folk singer, composer and songwriter, was born on 1 May 1978 in Manavgat, Antalya, to a nurse mother and a meteorology-official father who died when Ölmez was eleven, after which the family settled in Turgutlu, Manisa. He took up the bağlama as a child and later trained formally at the Turkish Music Conservatory of Ege University before pursuing graduate study in Istanbul; along the way he spent a year playing bağlama in TRT İzmir's folk-music choir and studied under folk musician Mehmet Erenler.

His 2003 debut album, Su Misali, launched his career, and he followed it with a long string of releases including Her Şeyin Farkındayım, Damla Damla and Türkü. In 2006 he won a Kral TV award for best male fantasy-music performer and began hosting music programmes on Kral TV and later TRT Müzik. Beyond performing, he has written and composed songs for artists such as Cengiz Kurtoğlu and Özcan Deniz, plays numerous traditional and Western instruments, and runs his own record label. In December 2016 he survived a knife attack by a neighbor but continued performing, and he released a reworked version of his song Seni Seviyorum in early 2026.