Ayym Ayylchieva

Ayym Ayylchieva / Айым Айылчиева

Published: October 6, 2016

Ayym Ayylchieva (Айым Айылчиева) is a young, up-and-coming Kyrgyz pop singer from Bishkek. She sings mostly in Kyrgyz.

Ayylchieva was born in 1998 to a supportive family to whom she says she owes her success. She always dreamed of becoming a performer, and her parents encouraged her; her first musical performance was on the TV show Magic Country (Волшебная страна) on TV station KTRK. Her breakout into stardom came in 2014, when she appeared on the fifth season of the Ukrainian TV show The X-Factor. In fact, the TV show was seen as such a steppingstone that later in 2014 she was invited to the Kyrgyz embassy in Washington, DC, to perform in honor of Kyrgyzstan’s Independence Day. In 2015 she went on to participate in and win the music contest Golden Microphone (Золотой Микрофон). This was all even before she graduated high school—which she only did in June 2016.

She says that she works “for the good of her country”: in 2014 she was invited to be the soloist of a Kazakh group, KTI Girls, and spent a year there performing with the group and learning the Kazakh language, but she missed her homeland and family too much and returned to Kyrgyzstan.

Ayylchieva also has a collaboration Ayana Kasymova (Аяна Касымова), another young, newly popular Kyrgyz singer. Their duet “Parents” (“Ата-Эне”) was quite popular in 2015. Ayylchieva’s most recent single, “Cheers and Chants” (“Сүрөөн”), released in 2016, is dedicated to Kyrgyzstan’s national soccer team. Her manager said she hoped the song would inspire the Kyrgyz soccer team to glory. It seems to have worked, as the song became the team’s official hymn and Ayylchieva performed it at the opening game of the season.

 

“Cheers and Chants” (“Сүрөөн”):

 

Lyrics for “Сүрөөн”:

Канат берип кайкытып,
Алып учат алыс билимиң.
Жан дүйнөнү жаркытып,
Акылыңдын жандыр билигин.
Жалындасак канчалык,
Жалпы дүйнө тамшанып,
Калкыбыздын көрсүн бийигин!

Кайырма:
Жаралып нурдан,
Жарыгын сунган,
Жылдыздуу элим кыргызым.
Тиленем түтпөй,
Бийиктен түшпөй,
Көкөлөй берсин жылдызың.
Көкөлөй берсин уул-кызың,
Көкөлөй берсин кыргызым.

Жаштар берет жаңы күч,
Желбиретип жеңиш желегин.
Ала-Тоону алып уч,
Эл-жериңе тийсин керегиң.
Жүзүбүздөн кут жанып,
Дүйнө бүтүн суктанып,
Элибиздин билсин тереңин!

Кайырма:
Жаралып нурдан,
Жарыгын сунган,
Жылдыздуу элим кыргызым.
Тиленем түтпөй,
Бийиктен түшпөй,
Көкөлөй берсин жылдызың.
Көкөлөй берсин уул-кызың,
Көкөлөй берсин жылдызың.

 

“Parents” (“Ата-Эне”):

 

Lyrics for “Ата-Эне”:

Жүрөсүңөр жашап-иштеп алыста,
Чоло тийбейт ай өткөрбөй барышка.
Ак эмгекти актайын деп уулуңар,
Билим үчүн түшкөн узак жарышка.

Ойлоорсуңар санаа тартып, камыгып,
Садагалап, караанымдан кагылып.
Силер мени самагандай жол карап,
Мен да жүрөм өзүңөрдү сагынып.

Силер анда, мен күнчүлүк алысмын,
Заманамдан калбай келет жарышкым.
Алпештеген энем менен атакем,
Экөөңөргө өмүр бою карызмын.

About the author

Julie Hersh

Julie studied Russian as a Second Language in Irkutsk and before that, Bishkek, with SRAS's Home and Abroad Scholarship program, with the goal of someday having some sort of Russia/Eurasia-related career. She recently got her master’s degree from the University of Glasgow and the University of Tartu, where she studied women’s dissent in Soviet Russia. She also has a bachelor’s degree in literature from Yale. Some of her favorite Russian authors are Sorokin, Shishkin, Il’f and Petrov, and Akhmatova. In her spare time Julie cautiously practices martial arts, reads feminist websites, and taste-tests instant coffee for her blog.

Program attended: Home and Abroad Scholar

View all posts by: Julie Hersh