Tarkan Tevetoglu - more popularly known as Tarkan - is a huge pop sensation in Turkey.Born in Alzey, near Frankfurt in 1972, he grew up in Germany. In 1986, his father decided to relocate his family back to his homeland in Turkey. Tarkan began to study music in Karamursel. His road to fame began when his family moved to Istanbul in 1988, and he began to prepare for University entrance exams in 1990.In 1991, he met Mehmet Sogutoglu (owner of Istanbul Plak, a prominent Turkish record company) who made him a star. His debut album Yine Sensiz ('Without You Again') sold over half a million copies. His second album Acayipsin ('You're Something Else') sold more than two million copies in Turkey and 750,000 copies in Europe - a first-ever feat for a Turkish performer. In 1994, Tarkan spent time in the USA to learn English where he met Ahmet Ertegun (the late Turkish co-founder of music giant Atlantic Records). Before the music mogul passed away in 2006, he had been quietly grooming Tarkan for an American career. In 1997, after a 3-year break, Tarkan released his third Turkish-language album, an album that prompted over a million orders before release and eventually sold nearly four million copies.On the tour that followed in 1997, he filled the Hippodrome in London, the Bataclan and Olympia in Paris, and the Arena in Berlin. When the album's single (Simarik-Kiss Kiss) was released by PolyGram (which became Universal) in 1999 in Europe, it reached high chart positions across the continent, including No. 3 in France and No.1 in Belgium. PolyGram decided to license a compilation album of Tarkan's songs from his previous two albums for the international market. He won a World Music Award in Monaco in the same year for the sales of that album, simply titled "Tarkan". It also became a hit in Latin America in 2000.He followed with albums Karma in 2001 and Dudu in 2003, signaling an experimentation with ethnocentric pop. The Dudu EP won Tarkan best foreign selling artist in Russia when it reached over a million sales.In 2006 Tarkan released his debut English language album, "Come Closer".Tarkan is one of the very few European artists who has managed to attain chart success in Russia, Latin America and across the European continent singing in his native language - as well as being a cultural icon in his homeland.
