Işın Karaca

Işın Karaca
in Antalya, 10 May 2008
Background information
Birth name	Işın Funda Büyükkaraca
Born	7 March 1973 (1973-03-07) UK
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, record producer, actress
Years active	2001 – present
Labels	Seyhan (2006–) İmaj (2004–2006) Power (2001–2004)
Website	isinkaraca.com

Işın Karaca (Turkish pronunciation: [ɯʃˈɯn kaɾaˈdʒa]) (born 7 March 1973 in London) is a British born Turkish Cypriot pop singer.

Education

She graduated from the London IV King Edward School with a theatre major.

Musical career

Işın began her musical career as vocalist for Sezen Aksu. In 1997, she performed songs in the Turkish translation of Disney's Hercules' Soundtrack. She also performed the Turkish translations of this album. In 1999 she became the lead vocalist of the musical group "Panic Attack", but the group separated before releasing any albums. In 2000 she competed for Turkey on Eurovision Song Contest's pre-eliminations with "Bir Kırık Sevda". She didn't pass pre-eliminations for Eurovision but she represented Turkey in the OGAE Second Chance Contest and became 7th with 104 points. One year later she tried again with "Kaderimsin", but again she wasn't selected to represent Turkey for Eurovision. In OGAE Second Chance Contest, "Kaderimsin" became 14th with 52 points. She also appeared in Sezen Aksu's music videos "Oh oh" and "Allahın Varsa". In 2000 she was featured in "Geçmişe Yolculuk" from Fresh B's "Gerçek Kal" album. Until 2001 she continued working as back vocalist of Sezen Aksu. She also modeled for the XL fashion company "Sumak"'s Fall-Winter catalog in 2004–2005. She and her brother Akın Büyükkaraca own a musical production company: Akış Production.

In 2009 November, she modeled for Adil Işık's 2009–2010 Fall-Winter catalogue "Love My Body" collection. The photoshoot was shot by famous Turkish photographer Serkan Şedele.

Anadilim Aşk (2001)

Main article: Anadilim Aşk

She released her debut album, Anadilim Aşk (My Native Language is Love), in 2001 on the label "Power Records". Most of the songs on this album were written by Sezen Aksu, and two of them have lyrics by Ali İlyas. She made a great success with this album, becoming popular all over Turkey. Her first single Tutunamadım and second single Başka Bahar became hits. The video for the third single "Aramıza Yollar" was shot by Waleed Nassif. This video was the first High Definition video in Turkey. Famous Turkish actor Toprak Sergen also appears in this video. There's a video shot for "Doğum Günün Kutlu Olsun Oğlum", but this video was never aired due to conflicts with her music company. First release of this album sold-out quickly and they re-released with an addition of "Tutunamadım (remix)" in 2001. This version also sold-out quickly, and in 2006 it was re-released with "Seyhan Müzik" label. After the first album was released, she contributed to several albums like Selmi Andak's "Uluslararası Ödüllü Selmi Andak Şarkıları", Hakkı Yalçın's "O Şarkılar", Alpay's "Sessiz Kalma" and collection of "Yeni Türkiye Coşku Dolu". She performed a song in soundtrack album of Ezel Akay's movie Where's Firuze?. She also starred in this movie as guest star. In 2004 she formed a group named "Masalcılar [Storytellers]" with Erdem Yörük, Eda Özülkü and Metin Özülkü. They made their first album called "Masalcılar I" in which they tell stories to children. The group intended to make a series of albums like this and they credited this inside the cover of the album, but they never released another project.

İçinde Aşk Var (2004)

Main article: İçinde Aşk Var

At 2004, She released her second album, İçinde Aşk Var (There's Love Inside). She worked with different writers like Aysel Gürel, Suat Suna, Ümit Sayın. She also wrote a song in this album. This album has only one song written by Sezen Aksu. First video Yetinmeyi Bilir misin? becomes a hit. Second video "Bekleyelim de Görelim" also made a great success. The last video came to a Sezen Aksu cover "Hoşgörü".

In 2006 she contributed in Mehmet Tokat's poetry album "İnadına Seveceğim". Then she performed "Ben Sana Vurgunum" for Ali Kocatepe's tribute album "41 Kere Maşallah" which was a celebration of Ali Kocatepe's 41st year as an artist. She performed "Eski Bir Resim" in rap-singer Ogeday's album "Mecburi İstikamet". She also contributed in charity album "Yaşasın Okulumuz" which aims to make schools or improve the conditions of them, mostly in sub-urban areas.

Başka 33/3 (2006)

Main article: Başka 33/3

In 2006 she released her third solo album, 33/3 Başka (Different). She worked with Alper Narman and Fettah Can on this album. She wrote a song for this album too. There are no Sezen Aksu songs in this album. First video Mandalinalar becomes a hit. Second video came to "Kalp Tanrıya Emanet". Third video became "Bırakma".

In 2007 she performed "The Final Countdown" in Dolapdere Big Gang's Just Feel. This is the first song performed in English by Işın Karaca in an official recording.

In 2008 she was featured in Ogeday's Maxi Single. They performed "Eski Bir Resim" in RnB, Electribe, House, Reggaeton and Electronic style. In June, she performed cover of Esmeray's hit "Unutama Beni" for the theme song of ATV's "Elif" TV series.

Uyanış (2009)

Main article: Uyanış (album)

Işın Karaca's fourth studio album,"Uyanış", was released on 29 May 2009. She worked with Sibel Alaş, Erdem Yörük, Erol Temizel and Zeki Güner on the album. She is also a songwriter for several songs in the album.

Acting career

She had a leading role in a movie called "Sen Ne Dilersen" (International English title:Whatever You Wish) directed by Cem Başeskioglu. The movie has very talented actors like Işık Yenersu, Zeynep Eronat, Yıldız Kenter, Fikret Kuşkan, etc. She made a great performance with her role "Marika" although it's her first career movie.

Işın Karaca at Concert in Ankara, 2005

She was to act in "Herşeyin Bittiği Yerden" directed by Turkish film director and actor Ezel Akay, where she co-starred with Okan Bayülgen. The movie is about 1999 İzmit earthquake. The film was scheduled to be released on January 2009, however it was cancelled due to financial problems.

Television

In 2005 she hosted a musical program called "Işın Show" in channel ATV. In the show she hosted several popular Turkish singers and actors every week. In 2007 she and Vatan Şaşmaz hosted "Kadın Her Yaşta Güzeldir" which was a beauty contest between mothers. In 2007 she also became the musical coach of Vatan Şaşmaz in "Şarkı Söylemek Lazım", in which popular non-singer celebrities sing songs for the show. They became very successful that they come 4th out of 12 contestants. In mid-2007 she begins hosting a musical show "Haydi Söyle" in channel Turkmax.

Philanthropy

In 2005, she rebuilt the library of "Gölcük Kız Meslek High School" which was damaged in 1999 İzmit earthquake. On 3 July 2005 she gave a charity concert and donated the income to the school. On 19 April 2006 she opened the library, which was named after her.

In 2006 she contributed in Yaşasın Okulumuz project, which aims to make schools or improve the conditions of them, mostly in sub-urban areas. She sung the theme song with other artists and gave one of her songs "Sen" to be included in the album made for the project. She also joined the charity night aired on Show TV, where she and other voluntary artists answered calls for donations.

In April 2008, she contributed in charity album "Gel Sende Katıl Umudun Şarkısına" (Come, join the song of hope), a song made for "KACUV" (Foundation of Hope for Kids with Cancer). This project aims to build hygienic houses to be used for treatment of kids who had cancer.

In 2009, she and Sedat Doğan started a project named "Doğudan Doğan Işık" (The light that sets from east). It is an exhibition, which aims renewal of village schools in Turkey. They started their first photoshoot in Mardin.

Authorship

As of 2 March 2005 she was writing a blog named "Kaleminden" (From her pen) on her official website, that is mainly about news of her works but occasionally contains her point of view on daily events. The articles sometimes concern about global awarenesses or national problems with a wide range of interests from politics to music industry. She currently had written 66 articles.

In 2005 she announced that she was writing a book. Later she told that it is a diet book named "Büyümek İçin Küçülmek Lazım" (Need to get smaller to grow) and will be published when she is 36 in size. The book is about her memories while losing weight, and there will be also tips about diet recipes.

In 2008 she became columnist of http://www.2kadin.com website and has been writing since 18 June 2008. Her columns are about relationships, and her target audience is women.

Discography

Main article: Işın Karaca discography

Albums

1. Anadilim Aşk [My Native Language is Love] (28 November 2001)
2. İçinde Aşk Var [There's Love Inside] (16 December 2004)
3. Başka 33/3 [Different] (19 June 2006)
4. Uyanış [Awakening] (29 May 2009)
5. Arabesque: Geçmiş, Geçmemiş Hiç... [Arabesque: Past, has never passed...] (22 April 2010)
6. Arabesque II: Geçmiş Bize Yakışıyor [Arabesque II: Past suits us] (June 2011)

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Format
2004	Where's Firuze? (Turkish: Neredesin Firuze)	herself	guest singer	Film
2005	Sen Ne Dilersen (int. title: Whatever You Wish)	Marika	First movie
	Işın Show	Host	Musical show, aired for 7 episodes	TV Show
	Haziran Gecesi	herself	17th episode, guest singer	TV Series
2007	Kadın Her Yaşta Güzeldir	Co-host	with Vatan Şaşmaz	TV Show
	Şarkı Söylemek Lazım	Contestant	Vocal coach of Vatan Şaşmaz, they became 4th.
	Haydi Söyle	Host	Musical contest
2009	Altın Kızlar	Nurse Binnaz	4th episode, guest actress in Turkish adaption of The Golden Girls	TV Series
2010	Gelecekten Bir Gün	Filiz	guest actress	Film

Awards and nominations

Year	Contest	Category	result
1999	Altın Güvercin Music Contest	Best Performer	Won
2000	Altın Güvercin Music Contest	Best Performer	Won
2002	Kral TV Video and Music Awards	Best New Female Artist	Nominated
2005	Kral TV Video and Music Awards	Best Pop Female Artist	Nominated
2006	İstanbul Fm Gold Awards Ceremony	Best Pop Female Artist	Won
2010	İstanbul Fm Gold Awards Ceremony	Best concept album (Female) for "Arabesque"	Won

External links

• Official site
• Sen ne dilersen at the Internet Movie Database
• Isin Karaca at the Internet Movie Database
• Işın Karaca discography at MusicBrainz
• Işın Karaca discography at Discogs

See also

• Sezen Aksu
• Music of Turkey
• Turkish pop music