Tarkan Tevetoğlu (born October 17, 1972 in Alzey, West Germany), popularly known as Tarkan, is a successful World Music award-winning pop music singer in Turkey. He has released several platinum-selling albums during his career, with an estimated 15 million albums sold, and is also involved in producing music through his own music company HITT Music, which he established in 1997. Noted for his live stage performances, the Washington Post has compared Tarkan's effect on Turkey as analogous to Elvis in America circa 1957, while co-founder of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegün described him as one of the best live performers he had ever seen.