Her mother – Tukezban Ismayilova, was a popular Azerbaijani singer and khanende, and father – Mazahir Guliyev, worked as a prosecutor in Lankaran.

In 1963, with the support of Ziniat Alizadeh, who was in close relations with Guliyeva's family, she starts performing at the university's "Sevinj" pop ensemble.

Competing with young singers from many countries, Ilhama Guliyeva performs the songs of Rauf Hajiyev and Tofig Guliyev.

As Guliyeva becomes the winner of the competition, she returns to Baku and gets invited to perform at the orchestra of the Azerbaijan State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (AzTV).

After several years, Guliyeva starts to cooperate with an Azerbaijani composer Faiq Sücəddinov [az] and performs such popular in Azerbaijan lyrical songs as "Neylərsən", "Kaman", "Bilsən necə darıxmışam" etc.

She gives concerts in the regions of Azerbaijan, runs her propaganda and makes a worthy contribution to Ilham Aliyev's successful election.

In 2004, at various conferences, symposiums and protest rallies in Goteborg, Strasbourg, Paris, Istanbul and in front of the building of European Parliament in Brussels, Guliyeva had comprehensive public speeches on Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani internationally recognized territories.

As the result of active socio-political participation, Guliyeva was elected as the president of the "Academy of Culture" under the World Congress of Azerbaijanis/Dünya Azərbaycanlıları Konqresi in 2004.

Considering the fact that the major segment of Azerbaijani society is conservative with traditional values, this persistent negative attitude towards Guliyeva was due to her liberal behavior with regard to love affairs in the 1980s and 90s.

However, nowadays it is an interesting scene to observe when foreign musical artists with no greater decent "ethical" background visit Azerbaijan, the people rush to highly greet and express their deep respect towards them in concert halls and social media.

Her major disputes were with such Azerbaijani singers as Nazpəri Dostəliyeva, Elza Seyidcahan, Aygün Kazımova and Brilliant Dadashova.

However, as TV channels were inviting Kerimova to talk shows, she used to insult Guliyeva, naming her a "disgrace to the musical stage and art, as well as to the Azerbaijani nation".

As a sign of respect towards Guliyeva's musical creativity, such Azerbaijani high ranking social and political figures as President Ilham Aliyev, Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, Speaker of National Assembly Ogtay Asadov, Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev, People's Artist of USSR and Azerbaijan Zeynab Khanlarova, composer Eldar Mansurov and others signed obituary and expressed their condolences to Guliyeva's family members:[5] Gulyanag Mammadova