GÖKSENİN
Istanbul born Turkish singer songwriter Goksenin, after spending her childhood and adolescence, constantly moving while attending countless different schools, picked up the guitar at the age of sixteen and it was at this time that she began singing at open mic venues. She also took piano and singing lessons from time to time.
After graduating faculty of pharmacy with a master’s degree in Pharmacology, she started gigging at live music clubs with her band on weekends while working in pharmaceutical industry during the week.
In 2008, Goksenin quit working as a full-time pharmacist to devote much more of her time to music; consequently increased the number of her stage performances and original compositions.
In 2009, she and her guitarist pal, Gurkan Ozbek got together, worked intensely for six months, wrote and recorded "Ikimizin Sirri,” a rock album that did not see the light of day until 2012.
In 2013, they released a single called "Dunya Olene Kadar” and shared its videoclip on YouTube.
Goksenin also recorded an album in 2014 that was never released. During this period she also wrote and performed radio jingles and compositions for children's theater with Erdem Tarabuş.
Goksenin has been performing mainly in Istanbul live music clubs for almost twenty years. She has taken residencies in many landmark clubs of Istanbul, a city that is well known around the world for its lively night life, where she performed many classic rock and hard rock staples in addition to her original songs and blues interpretations. Nevertheless her proudest moment came when she traveled to Cizre, a small town in the south east of Turkey right next to Syrian border, where blues is scarcely known. The audience of this first blues-rock concert held in Cizre welcomed her with open arms and curiosity about rock, blues and the western musical traditions.
Being a female musician, Goksenin came to realize that the legacy of the great American female blues singers were largely being ignored in live music everywhere. Around 2015, she shifted her focus to preserving and bringing female blues tradition to the contemporary and future audiences. Since then, in a series of performances she calls "Woman Blues with Goksenin” she performs the songs of the likes of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie and Koko Taylor next to her own brand new blues compositions. The project attracts a lot of attention as she not only performs such repertoire but also tells stories of blues history interpreted/written by women.
Goksenin still performs her own rock music as well. In 2017, she also released a single called "Ne Olursa Olsun” and produced its video which consisted of the singer’s family’s film archives.
Goksenin and her band had started recording "Women’s Blues" album in 2018. The current pandemic gave her and the bandmates a chance to get their priorities straight and finally finish the singers’ life’s work.
Goksenin is the founder and the president of the board of Turkey’s first and only Blues Association. Since its foundation in 2018, Blues Association’s membership went from the original seven members up to almost four hundred and continues to grow.
Frequent collaborators: Gurkan Ozbek, Ozan Yesildal, Soner Doganca, Atakan Ongen, Dincer Tugmaner, Vefa Karatay, Cem Yalcinkaya, Murat Tukenmez, Erdem Tarabus, Murat Font, Sweet Papa Lowdown, Serdar Oztop, and Ozan Yuvarlak
Her inspirations: Tina Turner, Janis Joplin, blues women, Ertan Kiziltan, Acil Servis, Bertug Cemil, 70’s rock, 90’s rock, Turkish blues bands, all musician friends with whom she jammed with, Turkish Folk Music, blues history, Goksenin’s and the world’s mood.