The Monarch-in-waiting of Turkish pop - Tarkan

Tarkan is Turkey’s reigning king of mainstream pop music, and the object of equally extreme adoration and despise by legions of people. Almost everyone has an opinion both on him as an individual and his music, which has kept him firmly set in the near center of Turkey’s mediatic spotlight and made his records multimillion sellers in its enormous music market. However, only one person manages to cast a faint shadow over Tarkan’s superstardom, and it is curiously the same individual responsible for both his and Sertab Erener’s careers, among others: Sezen Aksu, the Mother of Turkish pop. Which is not to say that Tarkan has been kept from attaining any glories, of course.

Savvily marketed as a somewhat sexually ambiguous teenage heartthrob, his meteoric rise to stardom has been a perpetual act of defiance to the more traditionalist and backwards sectors of Turkish society, which have made such exaggerate displays of outrage at his every action as to appear comical in their conservatism; from publicly denouncing his belly-waving, hip-shaking dance routines to taking offence at the silliest of gaffes, they’ve steadily provided Tarkan with the publicity he needed to become the herald of modern, young Turkish culture.

Named after a comic superhero, Tarkan was born in Germany and didn’t return to Turkey until the age of 13 – his passion had always been music, which he had actively studied since childhood. After failing his entrance exams at the University of Istanbul and being reduced to scrap a living in low end jobs, he decided to move back to Germany, only to be rapidly signed to a then mid-sized recording company, Istanbul Plak. He became instantly successful, with his début selling 750,000 copies in cassette format, and then hitting the two million mark when it was released as a CD a year later, in 1993. From there, Tarkan went on to enjoy ever increasing success both in Turkey and Europe (especially France, Garmany and Russia), especially with the international hit Şımarik/Spoilt (written by Aksu), which became enormously successful all over the world.



However successful he might have been, Tarkan has encountered a fair share of controversy throughout his career, from being criticized for saying ‘I’ve got to pee’ on live television (such pervert! ;-) ) and facing being tried for desertion and stripped of his citizenship for not attending his military service (he’s completed it already), to being photographed in a ‘compromising’ position with another man by the paparazzi. Still, these things have only served to increase his popularity, and the widespread answer to the ‘scandals’ that have plagued his career has been a resounding ‘so what?’

Thus, being most successful male singer in Turkey, Tarkan decided to break beyond its borders last year by releasing the utterly crap Come Closer, which is nowhere near his previous material. For this reason, I have only included material he sang before 2006, which is of an infinitely superior quality than what he’s done (or better said, been forced to do) as of late. If you want to buy his records, go here.

Şıkıdım (Hepsi Senin Mi?)/Shake (Who Do You Think You Are?)

This is one of Tarkan's catchiest and most interesting songs. Even though it just appears to be an ordinary bouncy pop song with acoustic guitars, the rise and the chorus have a distinctly traditional structure, and all the elements in it gracefully combine to make this a cheerful, almost exhilarating experience. Needless to say,t his has been on of his greatest hits ever, and one of its lyrics gave name to his 1994 album A-Acayipsin/Oh, You're Something Else. Video.

Dudu/Woman

This simply gorgeous song was yet another massive hit in Turkey, and also in Greece by means of Modern Laika star Peggy Zina (of course, I shall post about her very soon). Still, I prefer Tarkan's version, which is more poetic and gives greater importance to the way in which every single instrumental layer fuses into the whole. It is lovely and the title track for the massively successful 2003 EP of the same name. Video.

Kuzu Kuzu/Like A Lamb

This is by far the greatest hit of Tarkan's last porper Turkish language album Karma, from 2001. It is very different to the rest of the material in it, which has a very Euro-pop feel to it, albeit it is darker (and far better produced) than most music in that 'genre'. It begins like an ordinary contemporary R&B/pop song, only to evolve into what appears to be a tearful ballad... With a fast, insistent beat and a fast chorus from which you won't be able to escape! Video.

Uzak/Far Away

This track is also from the Karma album, and is more characteristic of the rest of tha material in it - none of the instrumentation is acoustic, and resorts to echoing harmonies and an abundance of electronic effects to build a somewhat ominous atmosphere, even if the lyrics are quite harmless. Still, it deserves a try, as it is quite danceable and has a superb break - I hope you love it! :-)