In order to fully comprehend the importance of certain names, we have to think as “what would we have lacked if they didn’t exist,” instead of listing their accomplishments. Atilla Özdemiroğlu is one of those names. Since he started music at a very early age, his career is coeval with our pop music. In the tumultuous days of the 60s, when almost nothing was clearly defined in pop, Özdemiroğlu and his friends (most prominently Şanar Yurdatapan) preferred to make this newly imported music not randomly, but by meticulously thinking, experimenting and testing, hence turning their musical lives, and of those who chose to follow their example, into heaven. Atilla Özdemiroğlu is a very accomplished musician and a brilliant creator. The form of the songs he composed and the production he adorned them with are completely extraordinary. The “stinginess” we witness in many creators, that reluctance to pass along the knowledge and know-how to one’s peers is nowhere to be seen in Özdemiroğlu. He has always put in the effort to share his abundant experience with anyone he worked with... Without him, our music market would have missed a certain point of view–a collaborative point of view. There would have been many names missing, a long list of stars such as Sezen Aksu, Nil Burak, Melike Demirağ, and İskender Doğan. ŞAT Productions, the company he co-founded with Şanar Yurdatapan, functioned like a star and hit-making machine throughout the 70s. In his absence, many songs like “Petrol”, “Firuze”, “Sevda”, and “Eskidendi Çok Eskiden” would also be missing from our pop music catalogue. And undoubtedly, films that would have been incomplete or less powerful: Muhsin Bey, Arabesk, Ağır Roman, Anayurt Oteli / Motherland Hotel, Teyzem / My Aunt. Without Özdemiroğlu’s score would Müjde Ar’s deep melancholia rapidly descending into madness be that tangible, that heart-wrenching? We gained a lot with his presence. We still do. In his own right, Atilla Özdemiroğlu is a big award for our music. –Naim Dilmener