Uğur Işılak

Uğur Işılak — Biography

Uğur Işılak was born on 15 November 1971 in Neviges, part of Velbert in Germany, and showed an early interest in poetry and music, writing his first poems at eight and, after taking bağlama lessons from his older brother Abdullah Işılak, composing his own songs by thirteen. After the family moved to Gelsenkirchen, he finished his schooling in Germany and later settled in Istanbul; he enrolled at Selçuk Üniversitesi's Faculty of Letters but did not complete the degree, instead graduating from the Open Education Faculty of Economics.

He began performing in 1987 and released his debut album, Vatanın Kurbanıyım, in 1988, followed by Kim Kime Dum Duma in 1993. After returning to Turkey in 1997 he founded the Divan Müzik company in 1998 and went on to release the albums Ben Ağlarsam Kıyamet Kopar (2002), Kalabalık Yalnızlara & Ozanca (2004) and Üstad (2012), the latter built on the verses of poet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek. He has hosted folk-music and talk programs on several channels over his career and currently presents Miras on TRT Müzik. Elected as an Istanbul deputy for the Justice and Development Party in the June 2015 election, he did not stand again in the repeat vote that November and has since continued to tour and perform concerts across Turkey.