Nino Katamadze: Georgian “Art-Jazz” and Folk Tunes

Nino Katamadze has been given many titles, from “jazz-diva” to “the Georgian Janis Joplin.” Her experimental, genre-defying work makes it not only possible but sensible to compare her to jazz artists and rock stars alike. Katamadze and her band Insight (together known as Nino Katamadze & Insight) are renowned across the globe, performing almost non-stop […]

Five Georgian Bands Bringing Traditional Polyphony into the Pop Music Age

Georgian polyphonic singing, added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, is a musical technique in which a single song has several melodies, each sung concurrently, with no one tune dominating the others. In Georgia, the style varies by region, but the practice reflects both military, folk, and religious culture. […]

33a / 33ა

33ა (33a) is a Georgian folk-rock band based out of Tbilisi. It was founded in 1994, during the troubled “dark 90s” of post-Soviet Georgia, led by Niaz Diasamidze. The name of the band, in fact, comes from the address of Diasamidze’s Tbilisi Apartment – 33a Paliashvili Street. All of the band members are Georgian. Diasamidze […]

Mihran Tsarukyan / Միհրան Ծառուկյան

Mihran Tsarukyan (Միհրան Ծառուկյան) was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1987. He is a well-known pop artist and actor. His Facebook page has nearly 40,000 followers and his official YouTube channel has just over 40,000 subscribers. Much of his fame comes from his roles as a main cast member on the show Hard Life (Դժվար […]

Iveta Mukuchyan / Իվետա Մուկուչյան

Iveta Mukuchyan (Իվետա Մուկուչյան) was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1986. She grew up in Hamburg, Germany where her family moved in 1992. At the age of 23, she returned to Armenia to audition for the popular television show Hay Superstar (the Armenian version of American Idol). Although she was eliminated in the semi-finals and […]

Sirusho / Սիրուշո

Siranush Harutyunyan (Սիրանուշ Հարությունյան) was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1987 into a family of entertainers. Professionally, she goes by a shortened version of her first name, Sirusho (Սիրուշո). Both Sirusho’s parents hold the title of Honored Artist of Armenia – her mother was one of Armenia’s most popular singers in the 1980s and 1990s, […]

Lilit Hovhannisyan / Լիլիթ Հովհաննիսյան

Lilit Hovhannisyan (Լիլիթ Հովհաննիսյան) was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1987. As a child, she wanted to be a fashion designer, but when a relative heard her voice, they urged her parents to enroll her in vocal lessons, and later she attended a special music-focused high school in Yerevan. Lilit began her public career on […]