Kambarkan Folk Ensemble

The Kambarkan Folk Ensemble (Камбаркан фольклордук ансамбл) represents a milestone in the cultivation of Kyrgyz national identity. Originally founded in 1987 by artist and musician Chalagyz Isabayev, the ensemble aimed to preserve, appreciate, and explore Kyrgyz folk music. Isabayev, born 1937 in Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul Region, was an honored artist of the Kyrgyz Republic. Although he […]

Central Asia’s Got Talent

The London School, where the SRAS students in Bishkek study, is located near a small shopping mall known as the VEFA Center. Due to its proximity, VEFA is where most students do their shopping. It also hosts many rotating attractions, however, in the large presentation space at the main entrance. Sometimes this is marketing for […]

Kyrgyzstan’s Top Pop From 2017

A popular Russian-language site in Kyrgyzstan, Limon.ru, assembled the following list of Kyrgyzstan’s top native hits for 2017. Бегиш feat. Баястан – «Теке» Мирбек Атабеков – «Жолуктун неге» Нурмат Садыров feat. Баястан – «Табышмак сулуу» Гулназ Чыныбек кызы – «Кайда» Абир Касенов – «Жаным» Айгерим Расул кызы – «Озун эле» Non Stop – «Жаныма кел» […]

Urmat Usenov / Урмат Усенов

Urmat Usenov (Урмат Усенов) is a Kyrgyz pop singer. These days he sings mainly in Kyrgyz, though he has recorded several songs in Russian and even occasionally sings in Turkish. Usenov grew up in Talas, a Kyrgyz village, but his parents sent him to Bishkek when he was 11 because they believed he had a […]

Nazgul Toktakunova / Назгуль Токтакунова

Nazgul Toktakunova (Назгуль Токтакунова) is a Kyrgyz pop singer. Some of her music—she sings in both Kyrgyz and Russian—is influenced by rap and hip-hop stylings, though most of her music is more generally pop-y. Toktakunova was born in 1987 in Bishkek. She always wanted to become a singer—and in 2015 she said she thought that […]

Gulzhigit Kalykov / Гулжигит Калыков

Gulzhigit Kalykov (Гулжигит Калыков) is a Kyrgyz pop singer and an occasional actor. Kalykov hails from Bishkek. He began singing while in school, taking a few standard music classes but actually focusing more on soccer. Yet when all the other students in his music class gradually dropped out, his teacher noticed his potential and helped […]

Anzhelika Bekbolieva / Анжелика Бекболиева

Anzhelika Bekbolieva (Анжелика Бекболиева), who goes by the name Anzhelika alone in her singing career, is a Kyrgyz pop singer (not to be confused with the Russian/Soviet singer Anzhelika). Anzhelika was born in Bishkek in 1989. She started singing young: her first performance took place when she was around age eight, at a variety theater. […]

Non Stop

Non Stop is a very popular contemporary Kyrgyz pop/rock group. Its members are the two soloists Maksat Sadyrbekov (Максат Садырбеков) and Cholpon Talipbekova (Чолпон Талипбекова). The name of the group came from that of their first song—there is also a Russian group called Non Stop (with a vastly different image and musical style), but the […]

Gulzada Ryskulova / Гулзада Рыскулова

Gulzada Ryskulova (Гулзада Рыскулова; her stage name is gulzada, in Roman letters and often lowercase) is a well-known contemporary Kyrgyz singer. She writes her own music and lyrics. Much of her music is “inspired by Kyrgyz traditions and pride in [her] nation,” she told Sputnik Kyrgyzstan. She further said that while her genre is usually […]

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