[Learn Turkish Home Page] [Beginners] [Table of Contents] [Questions or Comments]

[Habibullah Speaks!] [Latest website updates]

[Search the whole website] [Online Turkish word dictionary]

Identify this Famous Turk To Jim and Peri's Commercial-free CD for Turkish Learning -- now with triple ebook bonus! Also available in Downloadable Broadband Edition Essential Suffixes Printed Book

Pop Music Tarkan Biography Part 1 Related: Tarkan, Turkey's King of Pop -- A Christmas Day Album Release (with our English translation of its hit single) Tarkan's All-English Music Album, 2006 A 'Classic' Tarkan Sound Clip -- Şimarik! (from 1999) Tarkan -- A Mega Popstar's Roots Highest Paid Turkish Performers When Tarkan Stirred the 'Armenian Genocide' Pot... Tarkan Flops in France Emre, Hadise, and Tarkan steal the Beauty Pageant show... Tarkan's entry on the Who's Who page An original biography by Jim and Perihan Masters We hesitate [momentarily] to use the words 'proudly present' when it comes to our second LPT award for Turkish musical excellence. But Pop Music Star Tarkan is so danged popular among younger audiences that it would just be curmudgeonly of us to slight or ignore him... And, he's not about to go away, is he? Click following to learn the details of Tarkan's first All-English-Language Pop Music album... Turkish Pop Music Icon Tarkan Right click to 'View' or 'Zoom' image enlargement... Turkey's (beloved) bad-boy of pop music Tarkan's Pop Music Singing Career was really taking off in 1994 when he appeared on a live pop-music 'special' for the Turkish Radio and Television network. After he'd performed his then-latest hit single recording and was exiting 'stage left', the MC delayed him and asked him to say a few words for the camera. To the dismay of his pop fan-legion who watched in disbelief, he turned carelessly camera-ward and uttered the now famous, "Çisim var, ağbi..." ('I've gotta pee, man...') -- before scampering off-camera. The conservative-Turkish audience reaction was swift -- and Tarkan's pop music career sagged. But a year later, in a brilliant public-relations coup, he ditched his purely pop music image and staged a one-man TV special in which he only sang revered Turkish 'Art' music classics -- to widespread critical and public acclaim. Then, a couple of years later he angered Turkish conservatives again, this time more seriously. In favor of his hi-flying career, he refused to serve his compulsory 18-month Turkish army 'hitch' -- and skipped the country to Germany. For that act of defiance, he was officially stripped of Turkish citizenship in April 1999 -- and was publicly disgraced. It didn't seem to trouble him for long, though. In fact, he rather quickly found a brand new pop music audience and began performing in Europe, to wildly adoring pop fans there. His Euro pop-fans say his music is the perfect mixture of Western originality and Turkish romanticism. And they just love his "great, sexy voice, and fantastic dancing." Plus (say fans of both sexes) he is, "soooo good-looking." Why...he even received a prestigious 'Cannes Music Award' for his blockbuster pop music hit, Şimarik ('Spoiled'), with its image-evoking pop song lyrics: "She blows bubbles with her chewing-gum, and makes them snap brutally." But his heart never left Turkey. And when a killer earthquake struck there so cruelly in August 1999, Tarkan was Johnny-on-the-spot with a six-figure USD cash donation to help suffering victims. And then, in an interesting twist of fate, he was able to return to Turkey, legally. Because the Turkish government, which needed hard currency to help quake victims, decided to 'forgive' draft-dodgers (born before 1974) in exchange for $15,000 payments -- which just happened to fit Tarkan's case, perfectly... Related: Tarkan, Turkey's King of Pop -- A Christmas Day Album Release (with our English translation of its hit single) Tarkan's All-English Music Album, 2006 A 'Classic' Tarkan Sound Clip -- Şimarik! (from 1999) Tarkan -- A Mega Popstar's Roots Highest Paid Turkish Performers When Tarkan Stirred the 'Armenian Genocide' Pot... Tarkan Flops in France Emre, Hadise, and Tarkan steal the Beauty Pageant show... Tarkan's entry on the Who's Who page Other Related: Barış Manço - Dağlar, Dağlar song clip Kayahan's mega-hit 'Yok Arkadaş' Zeki Müren -- the Sorma album Unrelated fun: Frequently asked questions about Turkey and the Turkish language Sneeeezing in Turkish Turkish Terms Of Endearment Turkish Personal Names Politically Incorrect Turkish Humor Off-Color Turkish Turkish Conventional and 'Erotik' Movies, Index Translating Danielle Steele Novelty Turkish Wedding Invitations