Ahmet Selçuk İlkan

Ahmet Selçuk İlkan — Biography

Ahmet Selçuk İlkan is a poet and lyricist known for verse about separation, loneliness and memory. He describes himself as "the poet of separations" and "the bard of loneliness," and is also known as ASİ, formed from his initials. In 2026 he marked close to fifty years in the arts with a concert in his home city of Adana.

His first poems appeared in magazines before he finished high school. In 1973 he went to the Technical University of Berlin to study architecture, and in 1975 he took first prize in a love-themed contest run by Hayat magazine with the poem Hatırlar mısın?. In 1976 he left architecture, returned home, studied German Language and Literature at Istanbul University and graduated in 1980. He began writing lyrics in 1978, and more than a thousand of his songs have reached listeners with music by well-known composers and performances by leading voices. He also took his poetry to readers and listeners in books and recordings: Ayrılıkların Şairi, Yakılacak Şiirler and Erkekler Hep Yalnız Ağlar have been reprinted many times, and the series of spoken-word poetry albums that began with Mum Işığında in 1982 continued for decades. He acted in five films and made television programmes.

Besides song-of-the-year prizes he won several Altın Kalem awards, and in 2008 Fatih University named him poet of the year. In his 50th year in the arts he received an honorary award. In recent years he has also performed concerts in cities such as Kırıkkale and Sivas.