Music like Ilhan Irem

İlhan Sami Özulu is currently celebrating his 50th anniversary in music. He was born and raised in İstanbul, Turkey and started his music education in 1966 at İstanbul Municipal Conservatory of Music when he was at middle school. After his graduation from Kültür Koleji, in 1972, he enrolled at the University of İstanbul’s School of Economics. At the same time, he started to play guitar at various hotels, nightclubs and casinos in İstanbul and participated in several tours in Europe and all around Turkey.

İlhan formed his first band, “Evrim Folk Dörtlüsü”, with his brother İhsan in 1970, and recorded the first single record in 1971. In 1973 they changed their band’s name to “Evrim 5”, and recorded their second single with lyrics by Ümit Yaşar Oğuzcan, and Esmeray featured on lead vocal. With the success of this single, “Evrim 5” hit the charts on HEY Music Magazine’s Top 50 list for 16 consecutive weeks. İlhan İrem later joined the group as a lead singer. Among his many other accomplishments, İlhan received the TRT Best Composer Music Award in 1979, competing with 415 other composers.