Tarkan Tevetoğlu

Career[edit]

1992–2000: Yine Sensiz, Aacayipsin and Ölürüm Sana[edit]

Tarkan's first album, Yine Sensiz, was released on cassettes by İstanbul Plak on 26 December 1992.^[11] He wrote the lyrics for three of the album's songs, and composed three other songs himself and chose "Kıl Oldum" to be its lead single. On 18 June 1993, three new versions of the album were released on CD. Alongside "Kıl Oldum", he made music videos for the songs "Kimdi", "Gelip de Halimi Gördün mü?", "Vazgeçemem" and "Çok Ararsın Beni". The album sold 700,000 copies in total.^[12] Wrote one critic: "It happened maybe for the first time in the world of [Turkish] music, that "slang" words were used in songs and the brave young man began to draw attention as much with his songs as with his green eyes."^[9]

In May 1994, his second studio album Aacayipsin was released in Turkey; it was subsequently released in Germany and Russia in 1996 and 1998 respectively.^[13] Artists Sezen Aksu, Ümit Sayın, Ozan Çolakoğlu and Yıldız Tilbe were among those who were featured on the album. Tarkan wrote the lyrics for four songs, three of which were also composed by him; "Hepsi Senin mi?", "Unutmamalı", "Gül Döktüm Yollarına", "Kış Güneşi", "Şeytan Azapta", "Dön Bebeğim" and "Bekle" were the songs that got separate music videos. Aacayipsin sold two and a half million copies and earned Tarkan the "Best Male Pop Music Artist" award at the Turkey Music Awards.^[14][15] The song "Hepsi Senin mi?" was also awarded with the "Best Lyrics", "Best Composition" and "Best Song" awards.^[15]

In 1994, he experienced a dip in his celebrity status after he made a gaffe during an interview on a live broadcast marking the anniversary of the private Turkish TV channel ATV. When asked how he was on live television, his response was "Çişim var, ağabey." ("I've gotta pee, man.") He was publicly criticised for the comment and only after performing traditional songs on another TV special did he endear himself again to the nation.^[2] In part to remove himself from media scrutiny, Tarkan moved to New York in 1994 to learn English and complete his education at Baruch College.^[16] During this period he filmed a video to another song from his second album, "Dön Bebeğim", in New York. Again Tarkan stripped for this project, but this time he was sharing a bed with a female American model for the slow love song. While in the United States, he met the Turkish founder of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun.^[17] Tarkan has described Ertegun as his mentor in music and business.^[18] Ertegun, who died in December 2006, had long been preparing Tarkan for an American career.^[2]

In 1997, Tarkan found his own production company Hitt Müzik and in the same year he released his third studio album Ölürüm Sana, which sold three and a half million copies.^[14][19] Tarkan himself did the songwriting and composition for many of the songs on this album. "Şımarık", "İkimizin Yerine", "Salına Salına Sinsice", "Ölürüm Sana" and "Kır Zincirlerini" were the songs for which music videos were made. "Şımarık" became a hit in many countries; ranking third in France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland; second in Norway; and first in Belgium; it also ranked 26th on Billboard list of Latin Pop Songs.^[20][21] The song was later performed by many other artists. The song "Kır Zincirleri" also made it into Germany, Belgium and France's music charts.^[22] A copyright dispute erupted between Tarkan and Aksu over the track "Şımarık", which ultimately blocked the singer's chance to release an English-language version of the song. The music was initially credited as composed by Aksu, Tarkan and Çolakoğlu, but Tarkan later admitted in a 2006 interview that this had been done without Aksu's consent, and that Aksu was the true copyright owner. This dispute ended their successful musical partnership and friendship.^[23]

In 1998, Tarkan signed a contract with Universal Music Group.^[4] In the same year, his compilation album Tarkan was released in a number of countries including France, Argentina, Russia and the Netherlands, and it also contained his signature songs from his previous albums.^[24] Tarkan sold one and a half million copies worldwide earning the singer a platinum certification from Mexico, and gold certifications from Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Colombia and Luxembourg.^[4] In 1999, Tarkan, who already had high sales figures around the world, was honored at the World Music Awards as the Best-Selling Turkish Artist.^[25] As the first artist of Turkish origin to sell 500,000 albums in France, in an interview for CNN he said: "It feels wild, you know, because in the beginning I never thought it was going to really happen. It's all in Turkish, you know, and nobody understands a word. But I think it's a groove. It's the kisses that are universal."^[18]

His entry into the European musical consciousness started a Turkish pop boom in Germany and Turkey in the 1990s, with his European successes signalling that the musical borders between Turkey and Europe, more specifically Germany, were dissolving.^[26] Because of his success, he became the prime example of a Turkish pop performer with an audience outside Turkey.^[26] His erotic persona was enhanced when the artist posed naked and semi-naked for the most popular Turkish magazines of the period