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), 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. […]

Sultan Sadyraliev (Султан Садыралиев) is a contemporary Kyrgyz–Kazakh pop singer. He sings in both languages, though more often Kyrgyz. Sadyraliev has been on the Kyrgyz music scene for several years; he has been consistently appearing on Kyrgyz radio hit parade lists from 2012 or so. He is unique among current Kyrgyz singers in part because […]

Nurlan Nasip (Нурлан Насип) is a Kyrgyz pop singer and occasional actor. He was born in 1990 in Toktogul to a large, rather musical family: Nasip’s father plays the accordion, and an aunt plays the komuz, a traditional Kyrgyz musical instrument. Several of his siblings sing and play the guitar. He himself plays several instruments, in addition […]

Yulia Rutskaya (Юлия Руцкая) is a Russian-Kyrgyz pop singer, television host, and model who sings in Russian, Belarusian, and Kyrgyz. Originally from Vitebsk, Belarus, her family moved to Kyrgyzstan when she was five. She is a member of the significant Belarusian diaspora in Kyrgyzstan and has embraced her Kyrgyz side, singing in Kyrgyz at least […]

Kuralbek Chokoev (Куралбек Чокоев) is a Kyrgyz contemporary singer and actor. Evening Bishkek (Вечерний Бишкек) has described him as “a wonderful and modest person with an open soul and heart.” He sings mostly pop, preferring happier tunes. Chokoev was born in 1987 and grew up mainly in Kara-Balta, a town in Chuy province (not too […]

Ilyaz Abdrazakov (Ильяз Абдразаков) is a contemporary Kyrgyz rock/pop singer. He is ethnically also part Kazakh, but sings mostly in Kyrgyz. Unusual among the small crowd of contemporary Kyrgyz singers, he uses harder rock instrumentation and sometimes electronica in his music, and while his voice is part of the current tradition of smooth, easy-to-listen-to voices, […]

Gulnur Satylganova (Гульнур Сатылганова) is a very popular contemporary and classic Kyrgyz pop(ish) singer. She is one of the best-known female Kyrgyz singers perhaps of all time—it’s hard to overstate her importance to Kyrgyz contemporary music. Satylganova was born in Toktogul, Krygyzstan, in 1968. She always dreamed of becoming a performer, but it took her […]

Bek Borbiev (Бек Борбиев; real name Berador Borbuyev, Берадор Борбуев) is a Kyrgyz singer-songwriter still working today, though he is from the generation before the new crop. His style is completely different from that of today, totally uninfluenced by American pop (although it is perhaps influence by the Soviet pop of his time). His music […]