The January Dish on Tarkan

Posted by Hatice Soylu from Istanbul, Turkey and Steffan Matrak from Moscow, Russia

Social media saw Tarkan share a video from behind-the-scenes to his recent commercial shoot for drinks giant Coca-Cola last Wednesday.

In the video, Tarkan can be seen talking to director Serdar Dönmez, as the shoot gets underway to prepare for the singer's latest signing and rumoured sponsorship for the year ahead with the controversial US brand.

Looking happy and relaxed on set, the 46-year-old Peter Pan popstar can be seen practising his moves, as well as waiting for set-ups and talking through the filming schedule with director Dönmez. Lit up with energy, the singer can be seen calling "Cut!" at the video's end.

Yet, the commercial's popularity has not been without criticism, however, with Instagram followers calling Tarkan a hypocrite for signing up with an unhealthy brand and popularizing the sugar-laden fizzy drink with children. (9 January)

Senior journalist Aykut Işıklar has touched upon this apparent dichotomy in a Friday article entitled "Will Tarkan Let His Own Child Drink Coke?" and takes the artist apart for selling his values for money.

The journalist describes the behind-the-scenes footage as "shocking" and calls out the artist for his double standards. Until the Coca-Cola signing, Işıklar writes that he "thought Tarkan was a humanist, a real man of nature... who cares for animals and orphans. Perhaps he couldn't find a sponsor to give him enough money? Is it appropriate just as he's become a father to film an ad like this?"

Disputing the image the artist portrays on social media, the journalist goes on to write that the harm the soft drink can do is well known and wonders how much Tarkan can love kids if he is willing to front such a brand. (11 January)

Pinpointing the modern trend of diss, Sabah paper correspondent Yüksel Aytuğ has written a piece about a rival brand's challenge to Tarkan's recent Coca-Cola outing by focusing on how commercials have caught the parodying bug off social media.

Under the headline, "Commericials That Diss Each Other", Aytuğ describes the phenomenon as a modern one - with adverts in a bid to outdo each other by blowing their own trumpet while simultaneously blowing a raspberry at rival brands - albeit under cover.

Not to be outdone, competitors have started to use innuendo tactics in their advertising war, according to the Sabah correspondent, where the advertised brand is not explicitly compared with a specific rival but the comparison is obvious to the audience.

UPDATE: Challenge ad removed from YouTube >>

Yesteryear has seen rival brands challenging each other through a wide range of advertising mediums, but parody in competitive advertising is relatively new. (11 January)

Turkish daily the Hürriyet's celeb journo Cengiz Semercioğlu has written about Tarkan's recent pairing up with drinks giant Coca-Cola, and the challenge advert from a rival drinks brand. And Semercioğlu has given a thumbs up to both ventures.

Resulting in a lot of buzz being generated, Semercioğlu says opinion falls into two camps - those who liked Tarkan's shoulder-jive and those who made fun of it. Knowing that the artist wouldn't be in an advert where he was unable to "be himself", Semercioğlu writes that he liked the end result.

And alluding to the Lipton Ice Tea challenge commercial that was released a day after Tarkan's Coca-Cola advert was dropped on 27 December, the Hürriyet columnist wonders how the rival Unilever/Pepsi writers got wind of Tarkan's scenario:

"Now we are not used to seeing a lot of these drink adverts in the winter months, then two come along at once ... It's impossible that with all the secrecy over Tarkan's Coca-Cola signing that it wasn't known beforehand in commercial circles what was was going on. Somehow Coca-Cola's rivals must have heard about the script to be able to drop a challenge a day apart," Semercioğlu said, adding that he really liked the competitive rivalry. (5 January)

Following his praise, in his column the next day Semercioğlu touched upon Tarkan's bubbly Coca-Cola commercial again, this time to point out a detail that seemingly connected his paper with the advert.

"United in a viral dance, in the advert at 0.42s you see a woman on the red carpet holding an award... Clutching her award, she dances like Tarkan. Kick aside the fact it's got 'International Film Awards 2018' written behind her, but the award she holds is a replica of the Golden Butterfly Award," Semercioğlu points out.

"In my opinion it is the Golden Butterfly itself... Now we don't call it Turkey's Oscars for nothing, it's even used in adverts," he added.

Golden Butterfly is a TV and music award ceremony founded by Hürriyet and in its 46th year. (6 January)

And In Other News...

Writing for paper Milliyet's online supplement Molatik, music columnist "Mayk" (Mike) Şişman has given wide coverage to one of Turkish pop's rising stars, using Tarkan as a reference.

On the point of breaking into international music markets, Şişman writes about plans for pop newcomer Edis Görgülü to try his hand at the Japanese charts as he moves his focus to the Far East.

UPDATE: Edis: Don't compare me to Tarkan >>

Music critic Şişman describes the newcomer's plans for a duet with a Japanese artist as a welcome change from artists who keep attempting to engage markets in the US and Europe, possibly trying to follow in the footsteps of Tarkan. (15 January)

And following footsteps of a different kind, a celebrity presenter has taken the one-man musical show of his life to the Northern Cyprus - which includes his own impersonation of Tarkan.

News anchor and journalist İrfan Değirmenci decided to take to the stage after being sacked from his TV job because of his anti-government stance.

Walking off one platform and on to another, Değirmenci has been touring with his show after twenty years on TV as a news presenter. He had previously said that his mum had advised him to copy Tarkan for his show, as he is the most famous celeb in the country. (13 January)

On the subject of change, in an interview for NTV Radio, Turkish rock group Kargo spoke about the rock genre and how there is always an inherent need for change.

In the report, new and old members of the nineties rock group spoke about their staying power, and that being relevant in rock today was about "a need to change something".

Singer and vocalist Altay Oktar said that rock was "a way of being... like Tarkan's stage presence for example".

Altay Oktar works with Tarkan on the singer's live shows as backing vocalist, and is part of a long list of respected and reputable musicians across genres to have worked with the pop star. (11 January)

Turkish alternative rock band RockA, back with new releases, has spoken to Molatik's Andaç Üzel about the music industry and their previous collaboration with pop's kingpin, Tarkan.

In 2012, Tarkan appeared in the video to RockA's cover version of his cult pop track "Ölürüm Sana" (Ölürüm Sana, 1997), and the band took the time to show reverence for their industry's iconic singer in the online interview.

UPDATE: Lead singer talks Tarkan >>

Notably, the 2005 Ankara-based band spoke about Tarkan's backing for their cover version of his cult hit six years ago, and dealt with some of the criticisms that the cover had been unnecessary.

"You know as long as Tarkan liked our effort, it's not really important what others think," band member Halil Özüpek said. (7 January)

Singing the praises of Tarkan, Başak Yaygel is a music teacher from İzmir who is trying to break into the music market. Listing Tarkan as one of the music artists who introduced her to Turkish pop music, in the Molatik report she says she still listens to and is inspired by Tarkan and his music.

Uniting past and present, Yaygel's voice is described as "a warm sound that melts down into your heart", and as a product of the nineties, the music teacher says she wants to be known for her vocal interpretations.

Tarkan is a part of Yaygel's musical heritage, as she mixes the traditional with the modern to speak to the hearts of music lovers everywhere. (10 January)

Writing for daily paper Sabah, columnist Hakan Uç talks about Turkish cinema using music as a hook to pull in audiences.

In the piece, Uç says that music is not simply secondary as background to a film, but a marketing tool to push cinema ticket sales.

Touting a series of recent film releases as evidence of this, Uç also mentions Tarkan's friend, comedian Cem Yılmaz's hit sci-fi film "Arif v 216". Heavily promoting the soundtrack album to the film, Yılmaz had talked about how hard it was to cover classic pop tracks by some of the nineties greatest pop stars at a signing day last year. (5 January)

Occupying a lot of media space last year was Tarkan's collaboration with trans diva Bülent Ersoy to track "Ümit Hırsızı" (Thief of Hope), which has still not surfaced, even though the precocious diva spoke on daytime TV in the latter half of 2018 to confirm again that she would be filming a music video to the Tarkan penned track.

Now according to Ersoy, the video should be filmed by 18 January together with Tarkan, with showbiz news stories quoting the diva on how Tarkan called her to politely chase after the song's development.

UPDATES: Video to be filmed in February >>
Ersoy releases track >>

"Look he was too polite to say to me when are you going to get up off your ass over the duet, but he did ask me what I was going to do about it. If all goes well, we should get it done in the first weeks of the new year," she said.

Yielding to Tarkan's request, the song has a protracted history, with rumours in the press that the collaboration had also caused a brief crisis between the trans diva and pint-sized popstar. (2-12 January)

Alluding to a happy home life, a story in Takvim claims that Tarkan and his wife is getting cooking lessons from a celebrity chef.

Chef Hazer Amani reportedly has a long queue of the rich and famous in Turkey lining up to be coached on how to upgrade their culinary skills, which now include Tarkan and his wife according to Takvim.

Utensil master Amani is a Turkish-Italian chef currently starring in MasterChef Turkey, and known for his Ottoman and Italian dishes - two of Tarkan's favourite cuisines, the article writes. Now the couple are getting ready to join Amani's workshops to perfect their cooking skills for when at home. (5 January)

Turkish local paper for the Aegean region Yeni Asır has said that Tarkan has made a lucrative purchase of land at Seferihisar - a region of İzmir he has close ties with.

Hinting that local people are angry with mayor Tunç Soyer for selling off public property for cheap to be able to pay municipal workers, and with close friend Tarkan for supporting Soyer, the article adds that the singer is also rumoured to be buying his own island.

Organising charity events and putting his backing behind Soyer, the article suggests that this is the reason for the singer's efforts in the region - so he could purchase land for a fraction of its value.

UPDATE: Tarkan supports olive oil production in the Aegean >>

Largest local newspaper in Turkey, Yeni Asır was founded on August 26, 1895, and is published every week. Editorially, the newspaper is now close to the current political party in power and is classified as nationalist-conservative. (3 January)

Prominent TV actress Nilgün Belgün -a self-proclaimed Tarkan superfan - has posted a throwback share that caught the attention of the Turkish media.

Under a past photo of herself and Tarkan tightly hugging each other, which the actress described as "a picture of happiness", she shared a moving memory with the popstar who consoled her after the loss of her father.

She wrote that on the death of her father, Tarkan called her from America to pass on his respects. Saying that he gave her his private number to call him whenever she felt low, the actress said it was then she realised how important family was to Tarkan.

"You can't fathom what an amazing man he is ... may we always have his songs to listen to," Belgün shared on her Instagram account. (16 January)

Tarkan Round-up: A Celebrity Inspiration

Opting to showcase their own talents, Turkish TV celebrities have parodied Tarkan's recent video tease for Coca-Cola, while Hürriyet's celeb supplement Kelebek's piece on a 2017 Turkish film reveals a parody on the singer's step-up to domestic fame.

Hoping to become famous like Tarkan, two musician cousins decide to start as wedding singers in Çalgi Çengi Ikimiz, the second film of a series. (13 January)

Eking out fame for herself on social media is the "German Kim Kardashian" who - as it turns out - is Turkish and a Tarkan fan according to an article on Habertürk, while Posta's celeb gossip column by Eylem İpek Şafak claims that Tarkan donated the majority of gifts sent to his baby daughter.

Repeating news from 2017, after the singer donated most of his newborn's baby shower gifts to children social services, Şafak says that village schools across Turkey have also been inundated with clothes and toys thanks to the singer's generosity. (13 January)

Nostalgia has hit with Gunter Zibell writing for Brazil's GGN adding two Tarkan tracks on his playlist for 2019, while Sabah paper correspondent Yüksel Aytuğ who opined at the start of the year that modern celebrity scandals have become more obnoxious, with Tarkan's nineties "pee gaffe" looking comparatively innocent today. (1-3 January)

And the much parodied, talked about and discussed singer appears in two lists published by social media platform Onedio, the hunter and gatherer of pop trash and current trends.

Mentioned in passing Tarkan manages to remain relevant in one form or another - on Onedio he appears at number 15 of 17 people who wouldn't feel the pinch in an economic crisis to being in 13th place of magazine scandals that would leave you "open-mouthed in shock".

Excerpts of Tarkan stripping down to his underwear on stage re-emerged last year and have been kept in the minds of pop followers thanks in part to the efforts of Turkish Youtuber Şokopop, who has made it his mission to air the "dirty laundry" of pop's Turkish counterpart. (7 January)

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