Mehmet Erdem

Mehmet Erdem — Biography

Mehmet Erdem was born on 31 December 1978 in Manisa to a family originally from Arapgir; his clarinet-playing father and bağlama-playing uncle drew him to music early, and he was already playing mandolin at five before moving on to bağlama and cümbüş. After İzmir Science High School he earned a mechanical engineering degree from Boğaziçi University, then settled in Istanbul in 1997 to work as a musician.

He has described joining the ensemble Kardeş Türküler in 1999 as his real musical education; alongside session work on other artists' albums, he composed for film and television. In 2009 he won a Golden Orange award for composing the score to Deli Deli Olma, which paired Tarık Akan with Şerif Sezer. In October 2015 he was convicted of drug use and given a suspended ten-month sentence, while being cleared of a separate charge of organised-crime membership.

His albums include Herkes Aynı Hayatta, Hiç Konuşmadan and Neden Böyleyiz. He is married to actress Vildan Atasever, with whom he had a son in January 2026; his father, Sücaattin Erdem, died in December 2025.