Tarkan Tüzmen

Tarkan Tüzmen — Biography

Tarkan Tüzmen is a versatile figure who combines music, acting, engineering and swimming. He is best known for representing Turkey at the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest and for playing the intelligence officer Alper in the series Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu (Valley of the Wolves: Ambush). He attended TED Ankara College, graduated in civil engineering from METU and also swam for the national team.

The road to Eurovision took three attempts. In 1996 he took part in the Turkish national final with "Bilirsin ya", and the same year he sang the duet "Var mısın söyle" with Pınar Ayhan, which finished second. In 1997 he tried again with Elçin Engin and the duet "Şarkı" but was not ranked. In 1998 he won the national final with "Unutamazsın" and, at the contest in Birmingham, finished 14th with 25 points. He released the albums t1 (1996) and t2 (2003).

Acting was a second field added to his career through the role of Alper in Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu; the 2007 series Kurtlar Vadisi: Terör is also among his best-known productions. He is also known as the brother of Kürşad Tüzmen, who served as a minister in AK Party governments over three terms.