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Turkish pop singer Tarkan will return to the Istanbul stage after a long break with eight concerts at Volkswagen Arena in January 2026, all of which have already sold out following intense demand from fans.
The concerts, organized by Hitt Production, are scheduled for 16, 17, 20, 23, 24, 27, 30, and Jan. 31, 2026, at Volkswagen Arena in Istanbul.
Due to heavy interest, tickets for Tarkan’s first four concerts reportedly sold out in about 45 minutes, while seats for the remaining four dates were snapped up in roughly one hour.
The singer is expected to perform a repertoire built around his most popular songs, bringing together longtime fans and newer listeners in the same hall.
Tarkan, widely described as an iconic Turkish pop star with global fame, has been a prominent figure in the country’s pop music scene since the 1990s, while also building up a significant international following.
For many years, audiences in Türkiye were used to listening mainly to foreign performers, and the few Turkish singers who became known abroad tended to attract fans in regions sharing similar cultural backgrounds, such as the Middle East or neighboring Balkan and Caucasus countries.
Tarkan was described as the first Turkish pop singer to become widely known overseas. His song “” Simarik”—released with translated titles such as “Spoilt,” “Kiss Kiss,” “Chanson du Bisou” and “”Besos”—entered charts in both Europe and the Americas. The version titled “Kiss Kiss,” performed by Holly Valance, reached number one in the United Kingdom, while the song inspired many other covers and remixes in different styles.
Tarkan was born Husamettin Tarkan Tevetoglu on Oct. 17, 1972, in Alzey, Germany, to Ali and Nese Tevetoglu, who were living there as immigrant workers. The name “Tarkan” comes from a heroic comic book popular in the early 1970s and later adapted for cinema by director Tunc Basaran.
He grew up in a large family, with three half-siblings—Gulay, Nuray and Adnan—from his mother’s first marriage, as well as a brother, Hakan, and a younger sister, Handan, from her marriage to his father.
In 1986, the family moved back to Türkiye and settled in the Karamursel district of Kocaeli province in the Marmara region. Tarkan’s father died of a heart attack in 1995 at the age of 49 and was buried in his hometown in the Black Sea province of Rize. Tarkan’s mother later married architect Seyhun Kahraman, and the singer’s relatives now live both in Türkiye and Germany.
Although he spent his early years in Germany, Tarkan speaks little German. He is fluent in English alongside his native Turkish, having lived most of his life in Türkiye and the United States.
After returning to Türkiye, he enrolled in high school in Karamursel and at the same time joined Uskudar Musiki Cemiyeti in Istanbul, a private academy for Turkish classical music. In 1988, he moved with his family to Istanbul, where he continued to pursue music while struggling financially after failing his university exams in 1990.
Tarkan completed his studies at Uskudar Musiki Cemiyeti and began performing at weddings and other events. At one stage, he considered moving back to Germany to become a professional musician, but changed his mind after meeting Istanbul-based music producer Mehmet Sogutoglu.
With Sogutoglu’s support, he released his debut album “Yine Sensiz” (Again without You) at the end of 1992. Although he was then known mainly to a devoted fan base, the album featured strong lyrical ballads, in contrast to the more dance-oriented pop songs that would later define much of his mainstream success.
His breakthrough came in 1994 with the album “A Acayipsin” (Oh, You’re Different), created in collaboration with Sezen Aksu, often described as the godmother of Turkish pop music and a key supporter throughout his career. The album blended dance tracks and street slang—particularly in the song “Sikidim/Hepsi Senin Mi”—with romantic pieces such as “Don Bebegim” (Baby, Come Back to Me), which highlighted the softer side of Tarkan’s voice shaped by his classical training.
Observers noted that his success rested on a combination of bold, sometimes tawdry pop sounds and his performance as a Turkish classical music soloist, a mix that would continue to shape his work in later years.
Following the success of “A Acayipsin,” Tarkan went on a major tour, performing 85 concerts in Türkiye and across Europe.
Many of those shows drew young members of immigrant Turkish communities, but non-Turkish audiences also began to pick up the new sound and slang carried in his songs.
He later faced intense criticism after making a gaffe in a live television interview and responded by moving to New York to improve his English.
He eventually returned to Turkish television by performing pure classical Turkish music, another side of his artistry that attracted widespread appreciation. His rendition of “Makber” (The Grave), an excerpt from a long poem by Abdulhak Hamid Tarhan written in memory of a deceased loved one, has been regarded as one of the strongest classical Turkish performances in recent years.
While in the United States, Tarkan met Ahmet Ertegun, the Turkish founder of Atlantic Records, who mentored him and prepared him for a potential career in the American market. Those plans were cut short after Ertegun died in 2006.
Tarkan’s third album, “Olurum Sana” (I’d Die for You), sold several million copies in Türkiye and earned him his first national music award.
Released in Europe in 1999, the album reached the top three on charts in France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. One of its tracks, “Simarik” (Kiss Kiss), later became the subject of a copyright dispute between Tarkan and Sezen Aksu, leading Aksu to sell the song and prevent him from releasing an English version.
The international success of “Simarik” brought Tarkan a golden disc at the Cannes Midem Awards, while “Olurum Sana” sold around half a million copies in France alone. He then recorded a self-titled album, “Tarkan,” for European listeners and embarked on a global concert tour that took him to Ukraine, Russia, Tunisia, Morocco, and 17 European cities, as well as Latin America.
In the 2000s, his albums and singles continued to sell both in Türkiye and abroad, although not all of them were released globally. For example, his album “Karma” was shipped to Russia in large quantities, making him one of the best-selling foreign performers in that market. Despite his strong record with Turkish-language releases, his English-language work did not reach the same level of success.
Tarkan married Pinar Dilek in 2016, and the couple has a daughter named Liya.
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