Comment: One Hit Wonder in Denial

Is Tarkan moving to Germany? | Comment:

Is it Unpatriotic to Criticise Tarkan?

Oray Eğin | 18.12.2017
Translated by Ali Yildirim
Copyright 2017, Habertürk

LIKE all masters of rhetoric, Hıncal Uluç employs the simplest of propaganda tools. According to him I have become unpatriotic, badmouthing Turkey because I live abroad. And the reason for this is because I said Tarkan has remained local, has failed to break international boundaries and is only special in Turkey.

Of course I know that a lot of countries support each other for gain. I think the only reason Mr Hıncal is upset is that because of this, influential Turks are unwilling to support other Turks. Whereas no one ever supported Hamdi Ulukaya, Arif Mardin or Ahmet Ertegün; but of course this doesn't mean they're not going to help anyone else at all.

THERE ARE TWO RULES

An important point that is overlooked is the fact that many Turks in the field of culture and art think that opportunities will be presented to them on a silver platter simply on the basis of shared citizenship. However, in the West, talent alone is insufficient, it's also imperative to play the game according to their rules and improve on your talent with hard work. This discipline makes things run more smoothly (from an appointment to see a doctor to hiring someone for home improvements), which can be hard in countries like Turkey where the system is corrupt or completely gone, or possibly difficult for someone used to the Mediterranean way of doing things.

It's possible to count the likes of Orhan Pamuk and Elif Şafak, and coming up just behind their ilk Ece Temelkuran, as names willing to play the game according to its rules. Not only do they offer their cultural products in exactly the way the West expects them to, but they also promote them according to rules determined beforehand. Kurdish, Armenian issues, and now claiming that "Erdoğan is a dictator, I'm under duress", has opened a lot of doors, and continues to do so. The latest trend is the correlation between bisexuality and the oppressive Turkish regime.

But I have to concede on one point; both Pamuk and Şafak are still productive creatively.

On the other hand, Tarkan wasted his years in New York in a nightclub called Splash. Even if he had taken up the task and made a space for himself, he would have never amounted to anything because of his laziness. On the surface it looks like a lot has changed since "Kıl Oldum Abi" (I Can't Stand Her Man, 1992) to 2017, but in essence Tarkan hasn't changed at all. He always sings in the same way, using the same forced vocal sex effects, and his dance performance has never progressed. This unfortunately works in Turkey where the bar of expectation is low and competition is less. Because in Turkey he has managed to continue his career on talent alone, earning so much more money than anywhere else.

What's more, Tarkan is an expert on wasting the opportunities given to him. David LaChapelle, one of the world's most accomplished photographers, wanted to meet and photograph him on his arrival in Istanbul. He didn't even meet LaChapelle, whose photographs have adorned covers from Vogue to Rolling Stone. Because he didn't know who he was, wasn't even bothered enough to find out.*

These are all career mistakes, possibly. But Tarkan has suffered a much more fundamental problem, and no one wants to talk about the elephant in the room.

HE DENIED HIMSELF

What Hıncal Uluç remembers as his rise in the European charts is the "one hit wonder" lottery, granted to a lot of singers, hitting Tarkan in the 90s. Just like thousands of kitsch songs played and popularised in gay clubs, Tarkan's "Şımarık" (Spoilt/Kiss Kiss) and the impossible to translate "Şıkıdım" (Shake/Shikidim), like Ajda Pekkan's Olympia performance (1976), is simply Turkish nostalgia. In truth, Tarkan turned down the chance to be a world star when he rejected the gay culture that had embraced and opened doors for him. It meant a denial of himself at the same time. Similar to how you could only sell the story of Zeki Müren sleeping with a thousand women in Turkey, Tarkan, too, prefering to live behind a mask was forced to return to Turkey and become a singer who sang Turkish style songs. If only the issue were as simple as anti-Turkish sentiment.

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*Translator's correction: Tarkan has worked with David LaChapelle. Tarkan hired LaChapelle for his 2010 album cover, where images from the photograph shoot with Pamela Anderson were leaked in 2009. Tarkan subsequently shelved the photos and went with photographer Giuliano Bekor's work for his album. Tarkan and LaChapelle worked together again; LaChapelle came to Istanbul for a 2010 exhibition, where he unveiled a photograph of Tarkan as Elvis Presley.

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