Carpe Diem is the fourteenth studio album by Turkish singer Hande Yener. The first part, Carpe Diem Part I, which contains 10 songs in total, was released on 2 October 2020 by Poll Production. Eight of the songs in the album were written and arranged by Berksan and Misha, while one was prepared by Fikri Karayel and Deeperise, and another by Mete Özgencil and Devrim Karaoğlu. Carpe Diem is a pop and electronic album that also has elements of synth-pop, funky house, deep house and R&B. Unlike Yener's previous works, the eight songs prepared by Berksan were first composed and lyrics were later put on them. Yener explained that she named the album based on the philosophy of "living at the moment, knowing the value of the moment" and then a song with the same name was written and included in the tracking list. The album was set to be released in April 2020 but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the release date was postponed. It eventually became available in October 2020.
The album received positive feedback from music critics who praised Yener's ability in "renewing herself" and added that the work "surpasses the current typical pop sound". In the first week following its release, Carpe Diem ranked first on D&R's list of best-selling albums and topped the iTunes Turkey chart. The album's first music video was directed by Aytekin Yalçın for the song "Carpe Diem" and released on the same day as the album. The second music video, also directed by Yalçın, was made for the track "Aşk Sandım".
Background
Between 2016 and 2017, Yener produced and released the Hepsi Hit album, which was divided into two volumes (Vol 1. and Vol 2.), and released over the course of two years. After Hepsi Hit Vol 2., she released the single "Beni Sev" in 2018. Meanwhile, she was featured as a guest artist on the tribute albums Yıldız Tilbe'nin Yıldızlı Şarkıları and Alakasız Şarkılar, Vol. 2. Yener also released two English singles, titled "Love Always Wins" and "Gravity" respectively. Additionally, she began preparations for an album to mark the 20th year of her career, and in 2019 released the electronic pop single "Aşk Tohumu", as well as the songs "Krema" and "Kuş".
Yener announced in 2019 that she was preparing an album to celebrate the 20th year of her career. She added that the album would be "innovative pop, far from the standard 130 BPM tempo". She later announced that the new album would be titled Carpe Diem, to emphasize "living in the moment, knowing the value of the moment". It was later made known that artists such as Berksan, Devrim Karaoğlu, Mete Özgencil, Mabel Matiz, Fikri Karayel, Deeperise and Misha would collaborate with her on preparing the album. Yener later added that the new album would be an "upgraded" version of her 2006 electronic pop album Apayrı.
Development and recording
After the album was released, Yener explained the development process of the album in an interview with Radio Başakşehir on 2 October 2020. She stated that they stayed in the studio with Misha and Berksan before and during the pandemic, and recorded the songs in her home studio as soon as they were written, and that she did not want to use too many effects on her vocals. With ten songs ready in hand, she decided to postpone the release of the album. She said that as the pandemic lasted longer than expected, she added five more songs to the album and named the album as "Carpe Diem" and that a song with the same name was written on Berksan's suggestion. She added that Aytekin Yalçın shot the preview videos, which she shared on social media to promote the album, and full music videos were also recorded for a number of tracks. In the interview she gave on Kafa Radio the same day, she explained the production process of the album as follows: