TPAO Batman was a Turkish popular music band that was active between 1963 and 2000.

Background

TPAO is the abbreviation of

Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı (TPAO) (Turkish Petroleum Corporation) was founded in 1954 by Law No. 6327 with the responsibility of being involved in hydrocarbon exploration, drilling, production, refinery and marketing activities of ...

, the national petroleum company of Turkey and

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

is a recently developed city close to Turkey's only oilfield. The refinery of Batman was set up in 1955 In the 1950s, the population of Batman was only a few thousand, and most of the workers dwelled in the refinery site. The refinery administration provided social amenities including a dance ensemble.

Band and musicians

The band TPAO Batman was founded in 1963 by Ahmet Akman.Milliyet newspaper
/ref> Initially, the ensemble was playing dance music and jazz. But they soon became familiar with the folk music of the area around the refinery, called

Türkü Turkish folk music (''Türk Halk Müziği'') is the traditional music of Turkish people living in Turkey influenced by the cultures of Anatolia and former territories in Europe and Asia. Its unique structure includes regional differences under ...

, and they included arranged folk songs to their repertoire. Although Ahmet Akman left the group, they continued up to 2000. The band consisted of İlhan Telli (keyboard and vocals), Semih Özmert (drums), Çetin Oral (bass guitar), Ünal Yiğitbaş (saxophone) and Atilla Akman (solo guitar).

Golden Microphone award

Between 1965 and 1968, newspaper '' Hürriyet'' organized annual music contests, and TPAO Batman participated in 1966, 1967 and 1968. In these contests, the participants were required to play either new creations or arranged folkloric melodies. The TPAO Batman entries were as follows :Anadolu pop page
/ref> {, class="sortable wikitable" !Year !Name of the song !Rank , - , 1966, , ''Kaleden Top Atarlar'', , (Qualified for the finals) , - , 1976, , ''Karatoprak'', , (Qualified for the finals) , - , 1968, , ''Meşelidir Enginde Dağlar'', , {{gold1 Prize With these melodies, the band, hitherto quite unknown outside the TPAO circles, made a name. In addition to the melodies listed above, ''Fırat Kenarında Yüzen Kayıklar'' (“The rowboats sailing in Euphrates”), a melody on the reverse side of 1966 entry record, earned them a nationwide reputation.

References

1963 establishments in Turkey Turkish pop music groups 2000 disestablishments in Turkey Batman, Turkey Musical groups established in 1963 Musical groups disestablished in 2000