Media Monday - 2011 Kral awards & Tarkan's new video

Last week Kral TV had their 17^th annual music awards in Istanbul.  I am happy to say that my current favorite group Gripin won the award for best group while Tarkan and his last album Adımı Kalbine Yaz won the most awards:

• best album (Adımı Kalbine Yaz)
• best video (Öp)
• best lyrics- Aysel Gürel (Sevdanın Son Vuruşu)
• best composition-Tarkan(Sevdanın Son Vuruşu)
• best arrangement- Ozan Çolakoğlu (Sevdanın Son Vuruşu)
• best song (Sevdanın Son Vuruşu)

Tarkan also won best male artist and the artist played the most on the radio.  It is interesting to note that the Turkish word for ‘played’ (çalınan) also means ‘stolen’.

Berkay won for the best break through artist; hopefully iTunes will have some of his music available soon.

You can check out the songs from Tarkan’s album at – www.tarkan.com

Last week also saw a video for the title song from Adımı Kalbine Yaz (Write My Name on Your Heart) on Tarkan’s official website.  It is similar to the video for Öp in that it shows Tarkan facing the camera while walking and singing, but it also incorporates concert footage and still photos.  What I like about it is how it shows the fans too, girls with Tarkan’s name written on body parts, girls singing and dancing along with the music and gives you a feel of what his concerts are like.  There is a good shot in the beginning showing all the cell phones and cameras out during the concert.

Media Monday - Tarkan's new video - Kayıp

Check out the official video for Kayıp (Lost) at Tarkan's website –


http://www.tarkan.com/klip.html

A very beautiful and powerful song about a relationship that has ended. The video matches the song in that it is simple and beautiful, mostly in sepia tones, shadowy and blurred in some places, clearer in others. Like in life & our memories where the bad parts are blurred and become hazy and the better times become sharper.  Tarkan wanders around an apartment, ‘lost’ and alone and we get glimpses, memories, of the one that he has lost.

(Some of the lyrics roughly translated below)

Kayıp (Lost)

The clouds are painted in sad black
The falling rain is weeping for us
My hope is diminished
Time goes
Separation is master
And we are its servants

Your hands are fading in mine
It was an afraid and wounded bird
Flew fluttering from a love that was over

I wish I could say, may God speed you
But my throat is tight, I lost my words
I will never love anyone else again
Because my heart is lost in this body. . .

Who looks at a bathroom and says lets shoot a video here?  Or maybe is was lets shoot most of this video in a bathroom? Of course most videos are very strange to begin with; I guess you need to find ways to make them interesting. Not all of the video takes place in the bathroom, but a good majority of it does.  An interesting item of note is a turn table.  How long will it be before most of the population has only seen them in photos?

Tarkan

If you like good music you must check out Tarkan.  I am a total iPod addict.  I decided to find some Turkish music to listen to, to put me in the mood. 

I discovered Tarkan. 

Obviously I don’t understand the lyrics at this point without a dictionary (or some memorization) but the lyrics are amazing.  The songs are certainly good to dance to, fabulous to do housework to and for burning extra calories.  In fact I can hardly not dance when listening to most of his songs!


Tarkan's latest album - Adımı Kalbine Yaz – is by far my favorite album, though Adele's new album comes close (well closer then any other). 

I told my husband that Tarkan’s voice is like chocolate, a really good dark, smooth, rich chocolate with all the different subtle layers of flavor.  I can’t decide which song that I like the most but Öp (Kiss), Adımı Kalbine Yaz (Write My Name on Your Heart) and Usta-Çırak (Master-Apprentice) are I think my top 3 (of course then I look at the rest and think but I really like that one too!) Acımayacak has a Steam Punk inspired video. 


His English album, Come Closer (not available on iTunes – but that’s ok I also have a terrible Amazon addiction) is more like milk chocolate – not so rich, with lots of sugar added but still very good. If You Only Knew is my favorite.  Metamorfoz is also a very good album.


Check his website out - http://www.tarkan.com/ - to listen to his music and watch the videos.  Once you enter the website you have the option of viewing it in English just look in the bottom left corner.