Estrada is a French word meaning “stage.” In the USSR, it came to refer to big-name performing pop stars. Estrada artists rarely play an instrument and instead focus on pulling the audience into the performance through soaring vocals, intense emotions, direct interaction, humor, or other performative elements. Estrada is today a classic style with influences from rock, jazz, folk, cabaret, and even classical. However, in all of the USSR’s former republics, a new generation of estrada artists are rising, and are just as inescapable in on not only televised concerts, variety shows, and holiday specials, but also cooking shows, talk shows, and game shows. There has also historically been a political aspect to estrada as well, with most of its artists being active in social and/or political issues in some way. Thus, estrada refers not just to musical genre, but also to performance style and more broadly to lifestyle as well.
Languages: Search for estrada music performed in Uzbek, Kyrgyz, or Tatar, or in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, or Belarusian, or Other languages.
Albina Apanaeva (Альбина Апанаева in Russian) is a Tatar singer. She performs pop music in the Tatar language, and occasionally in Russian. She also currently works as an event organizer, though she’s best known as a singer—she’s sometimes even called the most popular Tatar pop singer. Apanaeva was born in Naberezhnye Chelny (Яр Чаллы in […]