Rojin Ülker

Rojin Ülker — Biography

Rojin Ülker was born in Adana in December 1980, the middle of five children of a Kurdish father from Mardin and a Syrian-Kurdish mother; she performs and records almost entirely under the single name Rojin. She entered the theatre department of Adana Metropolitan Municipality's conservatory in her final year of high school, but when it closed after a change of mayor she moved to Hacettepe University's theatre department and switched into vocal training. While under contract with the State Theatres, she was refused permission to act in a Hiner Saleem film, and years later had to resign from Erzurum State Theatre after finally winning a permanent post there. Her career rests chiefly on her Kurdish-language music: since 2000 she has released numerous studio albums, performed at festivals in Turkey and abroad, and taken varied roles in more than twenty-five stage productions. In film she played the teacher Zeynep in Dava (2001), Jekaf, a Kurdish girl abducted by Iraqi soldiers, in Dol (2007), and a singer in Pazar: Bir Ticaret Masalı (2008); she also hosted the TRT 6 morning show Rojîname in 2009 and reached the final of Show TV's Korolar Çarpışıyor. She has used proceeds from her concerts to fund relief campaigns for survivors of the 1999 and 2011 earthquakes, Roboski families, and people affected by the 2014 conflicts in Kobani and Sinjar.