But before I go, I should probably write about some other adventures. Last weekend we managed the third one-day-travel-for-a-concert event of the summer. My mom, sister, cousin and I came back from Bodrum on Saturday, went to a concert that night, and then the three of us minus the cousin went back to Bodrum early the next day. The concert? Why, Tarkan of course.
Tarkan is probably one of the most beloved Turkish pop acts. He's quite popular around Europe too but he's been in our lives in particular since we were little, little girls. He was the standard to which my sister measured all men. If someone was cool and passed muster, she called him Tarkan. She was like three at the time but still, there isn't anyone quite like him. My mom might be his biggest fan. Which leads me to believe he's gay because her bond with gay men is like the Ninja Turtles with Splinter. They look to her for approval and guidance. We believe she's building an army and will take over the world quite fabulously soon. She would vehemently disagree with this though. Tarkan is a unique being who appeals to all women, young and old. But I digress. Apparently we, ahem my sister, used to go on about Tarkan so much, my grandfather asked my cousin who this Tarkan fellow was. I didn't know that story and we were all laughing when my cousin told it at dinner where we all met up before the show. We all like various Turkish pop and rock and I have many Turkish songs and bands scattered here and there on my iPod, but Tarkan unites us all haha. He's like the Turkish Madonna. I'd say Michael Jackson but it just doesn't seem right. He's our Madonna like Ajda Pekkan is our Cher and Serdar Ortac is our... Ricky Martin? Back when he still mattered.
I'd been to a previous Tarkan concert a few years ago and he's had some albums out but none that were "official," I'd say. Meaning, they didn't make as big a splash. He had an English album out too but I never listened to that nor the previous album. The new record came out on Thursday, three days before the show, so we bought it to get a taste and it was classic Tarkan; well-written and often introspective lyrics, bouncy fun beats, and a loooot of a la Turca rhythms. We had decided to make a ladies night of it so it was us, my aunt, another cousin, a family friend, two of my mom's and our friends from her work and one of their daughters. Altogether, we were ten ladies. But since it was Tarkan the entire arena was basically all ladies. I swear there was so much estrogen in the air that our periods probably all synced up at the pivotal moment when the curtains went up. Though funny side comment: the house lights dimmed right when there was a commercial for um, sanitary napkins, showing on the big screens flanking the stage so it totally looked like an audience of women were cheering for pads.
I kid though, there were some men; they were either forced to be there or gay. The concert itself was amazing. We didn't sit down once and we screamed ourselves stupid. At the end, the sweat was just dripping off of us and nobody had a voice left. He sang a bunch of the old favorites like, "Acayipsin," which my sister used to sing before she could talk and my childhood favorite, "Gül Döktüm Yollarına." He also performed a bunch of songs from my favorite album Karma. Aaaand, I realized he dresses like me; tight pants, t-shirt, vest with shiny things on it. We have excellent taste Monsieur Tarkan.
He has such a charismatic air though. You know how people say that some have "it?" That certain star quality that you can't manufacture? He has it. He looks at the audience and plays up to them and has his little dance moves and his stage banter is so cute, it's almost like he's too humble to accept all this love and joy. He always thanks his fans for coming and tries to play down his popularity and if it's an act, it's a damn good one because he blushes and grins and looks genuinely delighted and surprised that so many people are screaming for him and for his music. He's just so charming and personable. He mistook a lady in the audience for someone else (both famous) and he looked so abashed and kind of grinned in embarrassment. It's okay Tarkan, to quote the woman next to my mom, "They all look alike anyway, they all go to the same surgeon." I personally don't think it's all an act because after he sang one of his most popular songs, "Kuzu, Kuzu," the audience started chanting, "BIR DAHA BIR DAHA," which means one more time, one more time. He just went, "Again? Okay, if you really want to," shrugged to his band and sang it again! And EVERYONE basically went crazy. So did we. Not to mention, almost everyone knew the words to the songs from the new album and he had to pause mid-song to exclaim, "The record just came out three days ago, how do you know this?" The arena wasn't that big but they sold 6,000 tickets. For two nights. That's 12,000 people. They sold tickets for the stairs because the seats ran out!
He took a 20 minute break mid-show which, as demanding show-goers, we were kind of surprised about, but he freakin' worked for us that night. He jazzed up his songs (especially, "Hüp," which we almost didn't recognize) to make them more concert-y like Madonna does and he sang about 4 encores after 2 relentless curtain calls and had even the reluctant husbands and boyfriends standing up and clapping. There was a picture published the next day that showed the audience; everyone had their hands up, were on their feet and smiling hugely. My mom is in the picture too and we had a Where's Waldo? moment when we found her amidst all the faces! It's our tradition to scream his name at shows and by God, did we scream. All the rows around us actually turned to look at us. Lungs of steel I tell you, pure steel. He didn't play one of my favorite, "Sen Baskasin," and he sang a couple songs from the new album several times but I can't really blame him, he has to sell records. At the end, we finally collapsed in the car in a mess of limbs and sweat. It was probably around 35 degrees Celsius, even at night, with rainforest-like humidity and we did not stop moving. Only for you Tarkan, will I grin and bear that, only for you. Because even heavy metal girls like to dance.
It's been quite an interesting summer in terms of music. I traveled to three different cities in three different countries and saw six different shows. There was Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood in Istanbul, the opening of the Istanbul International Music Festival with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra at Hagia Irine in the old section of Istanbul, and re-known 27-year-old Chinese pianist extraordinaire Lang Lang. There was Mercan Dede, traditional Turkish music mixed with modern electronica, featuring Elif Safak in Brussels. There was our orchestra again in Salzburg, and finally, Tarkan. Last, and definitely not least, I'll be heading back to Boston, the fourth city, in time to see lucky number seven; KISS. That's a pretty diverse range of music but I think it sums up my tastes pretty well. Just maybe add a bit more Madonna in there.
This is my favorite song off the new record. It's a fan-made video but I have been listening to it non-stop. I love the lyrics and if you know Turkish, you should really listen to them.
Tarkan - Öp
Tarkan-Op 2010
Yükleyen selimsavas. - DiÄ�er müzik videolarına göz atın.
Hüp, which he had a pretty cool/creepy video for.
Tarkan - Hüp by Aluxton
Yükleyen Aluxton69. - Video klipler, sanatçı röportajları, konserler ve çok daha fazlası.
Classic Tarkan- Acayipsin
Tarkan - Sikidim
Yükleyen goldrausch. - DiÄ�er müzik videolarına göz atın.
One more for good measure - Kuzu Kuzu
TARKAN - Kuzu kuzu
Yükleyen hasankefeli. - Yüksek çözünürlüklü video keyfini yaÅ�ayın!
The crappy photo credits go to my phone, the good photo credits will go to my sister once she gets off her rear and sends me the pictures.
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