Karma (Tarkan album)

Karma is Tarkan's fourth studio album, released in 2001. His fifth music project and his fourth original release, this album moved away from pop to worldbeat melodies fused with electronica sounds and became the all time third best selling album in Turkey. The album was recorded in Istanbul, Los Angeles, New York City, Egypt and Europe. It was published in Europe, North America, Asia, Japan, Russia. The tour "Kuzu Kuzu" which began in January 2002 was very successful as well and Tarkan performed in 19 countries and gave 26 concerts. As an introduction in the CD booklet, Tarkan explains the Karma philosophy and introduces the concept of using paper marbling art on his album cover.

The album was released in 2001 under the labels İstanbul Plak and Hitt Müzik, the latter of which was founded by Tarkan in 1997. While the cultural impact of his third album, Ölürüm Sana (1997), was still ongoing, he was drafted for military service in 2000. He began recording his fourth album in November of that year. The recordings, which were completed in May 2001, were made in six different studios. As with his previous album, he worked with a large team during the six-month recording period. The album included his own works as well as those of artists such as Mete Özgencil, Mazhar Alanson, and Nazan Öncel. Having featured works by Sezen Aksu on his previous two albums, Tarkan did not use any songs from her for this one. The album, which included twelve tracks, was first promoted with the release of a single, "Kuzu Kuzu", on 17 May 2001. The song, which caused a huge impact, became one of the most-streamed songs of the summer. For this album, Tarkan grew his hair long and changed his image. The album opened with record sales.

Karma became the fastest-selling and best-selling album of all time in Turkey. "Kuzu Kuzu" was a huge hit at the time, and its music video aired for a considerable time on television networks. While Mehmet Söğütoğlu produced Tarkan's first three albums, this one was produced by Tarkan and Ozan Çolakoğlu. It opened with a record-breaking opening week as the fastest-selling Turkish album of all time, both domestically and internationally. With total sales of over 1.9 million copies in Turkey and over 3.5 million copies internationally, it became the best-selling album of that year in Turkey. The album was released with agreed-upon distributors in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Russia, Japan, and South America. It was met with considerable interest abroad, particularly in Russia and the Middle East. Having sold over a million copies in Europe, the album was also reported in the press as the best-selling foreign album in Russia in 2001. The album topped different charts in many countries, including Russia, France, Denmark, the UK, and Germany. Tarkan himself garnered a much larger fan base abroad, especially in Russia.