We were lucky to catch up with Cihannur Ozgur recently and have shared our conversation below.

CHIANNE, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

My answer will be a yes AND a big NO! :)

When I first realized that I wanted to pursue music professionally; I was already in my late 20ies. (Not a common or expected timeline to initiate a music career, huh?! :) Actually sharing this now feels quite vulnerable as people often think that I am still in my early 20ies…

Back when I first started; I used to feel like a victim of my circumstances for not being able to start my music journey sooner. I was born and raised in Turkiye and I was blaming it on my circumstances for having to be a late-bloomer; wondering why I wasn’t born into and raised in a land that was more conducive, fertile and supportive for discovering my dharma, my talents and following my dreams if music is what I was born to do. Pursuing arts as a career was considered an illogical, uncertain and an immature choice and often discouraged by the families and the society. On top of that; it was not considered in high regard for a “lady” to pursue a music career. When I first decided to take the leap of faith and take a step towards this path; I did not have the support of anyone besides my ex partner. He was the first and only to encourage me, believe in me and to push me.

So yes for about a couple of years; I didn’t understand why I had to wait in vain and waste all those years if music was what I am meant to be doing. (Just to give a quick background fact: Before starting to pursue music; I was a full time fashion designer with a BA degree in International Relations and in fashion design. I also worked as a stylist and events planner, which I actually enjoyed all as well since they are all creative paths but they are nothing compared to the love and passion I feel for music.)

I used to be envious of those who were lucky enough to discover their passions and go after their dreams starting from a much younger age and have their family and friends to believe in them and to support them. I did not have any of that. I thought I had a relatively shorter amount of time to “catch up” in terms of the training, learning, finding my own voice and sound as an artist, learning to believe in myself and learning to become my biggest supporter when no one else did it for me. (It started to come much later!)

And at times I couldn’t help but wondered where I would be by now if I could have listened to my heart, and started music much sooner, had my family and people around me to believe in me and support me instead of secretly (or even openly!) judging, hampering, ridiculing and trying to discourage me. I’ve actually written a song around this called “No Matter What”.

Also I believe the years will pass by despite you choosing to take action towards your dreams and do the things that lights you up, or not. The mind comes up with lots of stories and excuses as to why it does not make sense to go after the things that our hearts desire and to why not to follow our intuition and dreams. Only the ones who are courageous enough or maybe in the eyes of the society; “crazy enough” to silence the mind and honor their intuition and follow their dreams with resilience and devotion; despite the fear and any adversities and struggles they face; are the ones that truly advanced our society throughout history.

In hindsight; I know that I am exactly where I need to be. Not a step further nor a step back. If I didn’t take the longer path to where I am now; how could I write songs that give hope, inspire and empower the listeners to go after their dreams, believe in and be authentically themselves despite what others may say or think? I simply couldn’t have. Our struggles, circumstances are not our destiny and we are not victims of them, life is what we make of what is given to us. Our hardships, traumas, and challenges give us a purpose. Only through overcoming our obstacles, can we inspire others to do the same! Only through becoming the most authentic version of ourselves, we give others permission to step into their authenticity and power as well!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a recording artist, singer and songwriter.

I consider my music genre as “Conscious Pop” with a purpose to inspire and leave a positive impact on the listener.

I like to talk about concepts like authenticity, believing in yourself and your dreams, self-love, unconditional love; just to give you a glimpse of what my lyrics are mostly about.

I am also a Reiki II healer and I practice sound healing.

Actually I’d like to invite you to check out my about page to learn more about me and my achievements that I am most proud of so far; if you are interested :)

https://www.chianne.com/about

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I believe that the gifts we are born with are the gifts we are meant to give back to our world. I am not necessarily a religious person but I love this quote from the Gospel which says “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” And the adversities, struggles and challenges we face along our journey are not meant to break us but to make us. So in my case; I have the innate desire and calling to make a positive impact in our world through sharing my voice, my message and my music.
I dream of a world where kids are not molded into something that they are not but they are encouraged and supported to become who they are meant to be, to discover their talents, their creative gifts and realize their dreams…
I dream of a world where people do have the courage to follow their hearts and their intuition and be authentically unapologetically themselves despite society trying to put them in a box…
I dream of a world where people believe in themselves and their dreams and go after them no matter what.
…a world where people do love and accept themselves unconditionally…
…a world where people are kinder, unconditionally loving and not living to survive and pay the bills and die…but they actually thrive and realize what a gift it is to be alive…
I dream of a world where people are guided by less fear, and more faith and love.
And I believe this world is possible, and that’s the new earth we are birthing… I sound like John Lennon Jr. Lol
My goal or mission is to inspire and empower my listeners to do so, to raise the frequency and open the hearts through my voice, my message and my music…and make them know that they are not alone in their journey…
I am just an instrument of God/ Divine/ Universe- however your belief system may choose to call it.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

For the first time in history, thanks to technology artists now have the chance and ability to reach their audience directly and create a relationship with them without necessarily needing a middle man like a music label. But in order for our music to have a broader reach, our audience plays a crucial role that I don’t think they are even aware of. :)

So to give a little context; 100,000 new tracks are uploaded on Spotify DAILY and about 100 million tracks in a YEAR. Yes you read it right :) So it is also really challenging if you are an independent artist with a limited budget and a limited social media following to get your music heard.

It takes SO MUCH to put out even one track; the artist pours their hearts, time, energy, money into it and I believe they deserve to be acknowledged for being courageous enough to put themselves out there. It is a very vulnerable and rebellious act if you think about it!

So there are absolutely various ways a society can be supportive of their favorite artists who are not at a Beyonce level. They can pre-save their upcoming tracks (pre-saves triggers the Spotify algorithm and gives the track a chance to be featured on curated playlists like Discover Weekly, etc.) They can add the tracks on their playlists, share them on their socials and share it with their friends and family. They can engage with the artist on social media by liking, commenting, saving and sharing so it would also help trigger the algorithm for them to reach more people who are meant to hear their music. They can buy their artist Merch, and go to their shows…

You have no idea how much these action steps would mean for an independent artist or for the upcoming artists. It’s a team effort after all. We count on our society, communities and audience to be able to continue doing what we do!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chianne.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chianneozgur/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Chiannemusic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/chiannemusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB1NXKC-fdcgWyMTRruQJNg?view_as=subscriber
• Other: https://wikitia.com/wiki/Chianne https://www.discogs.com/artist/12445153-Chianne https://open.spotify.com/artist/41U7r6HXpvTbskVPsM121n

Image Credits
Wes Klain Galen Oakes Maya Dondonyan