Athena is a rock/ska band from Istanbul, Turkey, founded by twin brothers Hakan Özoğuz (guitar and backing vocals) and Gökhan Özoğuz (lead vocals and guitar) in 1987. It is regarded as one of the best Turkish rock groups by many listeners. They have released 8 albums and featured as the Turkish entry to the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "For Real", finishing fourth. Band history Foundation and rise in popularity (1997-2000) Athena (ah-T'hěn-ah) was formed by twin brothers Gökhan Özoğuz and Hakan Özoğuz as a thrash metal band in 1987. After an unsuccessful first album, they switched their style to ska punk sometime later. Athena released their second album Holigan in 1998. The distinct ska sound of the album was welcomed by the local record buying public so much so that the title song Holigan was adopted as a march by football supporters of all ages at the stadiums. The album hit various Turkish charts and stayed at the top for a considerable amount of time. Shortly after releasing Holigan, Athena did a large scale tour of Turkey. One of the significant moments of the tour was their show at Açikhava Tiyatrosu in Istanbul. They later opened for Rolling Stones at a concert at Ali Sami Yen Stadium, then home to the Turkish football club Galatasaray. Athena was the face of Turkey as part of the Millennium Concert at Taksim Square in Istanbul on the first night of 2000. The said concert was broadcast live by the Turkish channel NTV. They were later invited to the Popkomm Festival held in Köln, Germany where they performed with the Beastie Boys. Their third album “Tam Zamanı Şimdi” was released in 2000 and the first single Yaşamak Var Ya was an instant hit in Turkey. The album sales reached gold status in an extremely short time. Their tour was sold out as a result of their exploding popularity. They performed a series of concerts in Germany pairing up with the German ska band The Fritz. After the tour, their song Devam Boşver was included in the album World of Ska Volume 11, released in Europe by the ska label Pork Pie Records. They later recorded the song Oniki Dev Adam (12 Giant Men) for the Turkish national basketball team. The Turkish team finished runner-up in the EuroBasket 2001 and many European newspapers commented that the song, sung by the team’s supporters