NEZİH ÜNEN
He began his musical education under the guidance of Timur Selçuk, a leading representative of both Turkish and Western classical music traditions. Building on this foundation through studies in harmony, form, and orchestration, he further expanded his musical knowledge with jazz theory courses from Berklee College of Music. He later attended UCLA courses in Film Music and Record Production. He also served as an instructor at Boğaziçi University for three years.
Nezih Ünen is an internationally award-winning multidisciplinary artist working across music, film, and writing. After studying Mechanical Engineering at Boğaziçi University, he chose to pursue a career in the arts.
MUSIC
Ünen's professional music career began with the score for Yarın Artık Bugündür, a television series written by renowned poet and novelist Attilâ İlhan, and continued with the album Planet, featuring fretless guitar by Erkan Oğur and bass guitar by Levent Yüksel. Throughout his career, he has been recognized as one of the pioneers of cultural synthesis in contemporary Turkish music.
As a pioneering figure in advertising jingles and TV/radio themes, Ünen produced an iconic jingle for Süper FM that defined an era. The album Yasak Elma, which included “Haremde Dans”—the song version of the same melody—was celebrated as one of the most extraordinary works of the period.
He bridged avant-garde and popular culture through a wide array of works, ranging from the soundtrack of the film “Berlin in Berlin” to the 90s iconic hit “Çingene Yüreğim”—which achieved 2nd place in the International OGAE Song Contest, the highest rank ever attained by a Turkish artist. The music video for "Karnaval," the title track of his album of the same name, received the Kral TV Award for Best Music Video.
As co-producer of the television program Sing Your Song, Ünen contributed to the careers of major Turkish artists including maNga and Emre Aydın. He also served as music director for Özcan Deniz's albums Ses ve Ayrılık and Hediye, helping shape a new musical direction for the artist.
CINEMA & TV
In the world of cinema, Nezih Ünen achieved global acclaim with the musical documentary Lost Songs of Anatolia—considered a groundbreaking first of its kind, interpreting Turkey's musical heritage through a modern cinematic lens—winning the Best Musical Documentary Award at the International Santa Rosa Film Festival in California. The project's stand-out track, “Eşrefoğlu Al Haberi,” was featured in the Oscar-nominated and Cannes-winning film Mustang.
Ünen subsequently wrote and directed his first narrative feature film, Blue Lodge, and also produced and hosted Those Songs with Nezih Ünen, a music-oriented talk show broadcast on TRT Music, the music channel of Turkey's national public broadcaster.
LITERATURE
Writing the lyrics as well as the compositions for almost all of his songs, Ünen expanded into screenwriting and literature alongside his filmmaking career. During his time in the United States, he wrote Remaking Martin, a dramatic science-fiction screenplay that became a quarterfinalist in the prestigious CineStory Foundation Screenwriting Competition in Los Angeles. He later adapted the same work into a novel and published it internationally
LATEST
After returning to Turkey from the U.S. during the pandemic, Ünen released a series of new songs, including "Gece Yolcusu", "Geriye Bakmadan", "Kumdan Kaleler", and "Beyoğlu". He continues to create new works and is currently developing a musical project.